The lead up to the Wilder-Fury trilogy has been strange and has now included a beef between PBC/Fox and Top Rank over their female hosts.
During the Wilder/Fury press conference, Top Rank boxing promoter Bob Arum ripped into Fox host Kate Abdo for trying to get the two fighters to face off despite agreements between the two camps that there would be no faceoffs.
Bob Arum incredibly critical of @kate_abdo. Says she was biased towards Deontay Wilder and knew they weren’t having a face off.
“F*** her.” #FuryWilder3 pic.twitter.com/kKRKfnp9vc
— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) October 6, 2021
“They bring this woman in from the U.K., and she’s slanting all of the press conference to Wilder. I don’t give a damn, but it’s obvious that’s what she was doing. She knew that the understanding was no face-off. Tom Brown argued with Fox for no face-off. We said no face-off. What does she say? ‘We’re going to do a face-off. Fuck her and fuck them. No face-off and we saved the fight.”
Wilder, who is currently signed with Fox Sports, fired back at Arum by mocking Top Rank host Crystina Poncher with an inappropriate gesture.
“They can’t get mad because it didn’t go their way, now he (Bob Arum) wanted her to be like their Crystina or whatever her name is, you know how she suck up to them and how she (makes sucking gesture) them off.”
This is disgusting. Women belong in sports and boxing. Comments/actions like this do not help. Wilder owes Crystina an apology. https://t.co/pMNVT1HlaN
— Dan Canobbio (@DanCanobbio) October 8, 2021
.@BronzeBomber Your comment about Crystina Poncher was foul & out of line. I started in #boxing in 2006. In that time, I observed in Crystina one of the most honest, hardworking & nicest people in the sport. Would you tolerate such indefensible slander about women in your life?
— Gabriel Montoya™ (@Gabriel_Montoya) October 8, 2021
Wilder and Fury are finally going to fight for the third time on Saturday night via ESPN/FOX PPV.