Stephen Espinoza: Wilder-Fury ‘close,’ would be Showtime PPV

Showtime Sports boss Stephen Espinoza believes that negotiations between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury are “very, very close” to bearing fruit, and that if they do, the fight will be a Showtime pay-per-view main event on either November 10 or November 17.

From ESPN:

“Whether it’s 95 percent or 99 percent, it is very, very close. I think we’ll have paperwork imminently and the plan is for a Showtime pay-per-view — pair it with a really interesting fight. We don’t know what it is yet, but something that will definitely communicate that the fans are getting their money’s worth.”

Wilder (40-0, 39 KO) and Fury (26-0, 19 KO) are two of the three biggest names in the heavyweight division — alongside, of course, Anthony Joshua — and while their fight won’t exactly break records on pay-per-view, the belief that it’s pay-per-view worthy is fair enough. It would also be Showtime’s first and last pay-per-view event of 2018, and their first since the Mayweather-McGregor fight in August 2017.

In fact, unless nothing unexpected suddenly pops up, boxing will only have two major pay-per-views in the United States this year: Canelo-Golovkin II on September 15 from HBO, and Wilder-Fury in November from Showtime. It’s clear that boxing people want to still use pay-per-view as a money-making outlet, but it’s nice that they’ve also accepted, unlike in years past, that there just aren’t many PPV-level events in the sport right now.

Fury has to get past his next fight for this all to matter, but it’s expected that he will, as he faces journeyman Francesco Pianeta on August 18 in Belfast. Showtime will stream that fight for U.S. viewers.