Arum: Very Few People on The Street Know Who Wilder Is
By Radio Rahim
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is planning for a large scale strategy to build up the name of Tyson Fury in the United States.
He believes Fury's December bout with WBC world champion Deontay Wilder should have been a lot bigger - if both boxers were properly built up in terms of their name recognition.
That contest ended in a controversial twelve round split draw, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
Fury's main rival, unified champion Anthony Joshua, is making his United States debut on June 1 against Jarrell Miller at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
According to Arum, if Wilder's name is built up properly by Premier Boxing Champions, who have content deals with Fox Sports and Showtime, then a pay-per-view rematch with Fury will by much larger than the first meeting.
"The trick is to build these fighters up so that the people, the sports fans, everybody knows who they are and has a rooting interest. We can do that now with Fury. Hopefully they’ll be able to do it with Joshua, they’ll be able to do it with Wilder. If that’s the case, then the money in the heavyweight division will be enormous. ‘You can match these guys and count on two million pay-per-view homes, you can do that," Arum told BoxingScene.com.
"But you’ve got to build up these fighters to get to that point. People don’t know Wilder, really. You walk down the street and you talk about Wilder, very few people even know who he is. Now I remember in the 80s, when I walked down the street and I talked to people about [Sugar Ray] Leonard or [Marvin] Hagler, everybody knew who they were."
Fury is likely going to return to the ring in June, while Wilder has been ordered to make a mandatory defense against Dominic Breazeale.