Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder’s intense six minute staredown ahead of trilogy

Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder shared an intense staredown at their first meeting in almost a year-and-a-half, not breaking eye contact for a number of minutes.

The pair last spoke after their fight in February 2020, which Fury won by a resounding seventh round stoppage after dominating and dropping the champion in the early rounds.

And despite them appearing cordial after the bout, bad blood has developed between the two after Wilder accused Fury of cheating to land the knockout, which Fury has categorically denied.

Since then, it appeared that they would go their separate ways, with Fury even signing a deal to fight Anthony Joshua for the undisputed title in Saudi Arabia on August 14.

However, that bout fell through when an arbitration case brought forward by Wilder ordered that Fury must fight his old rival one more time before taking any other bout.

So the July 24 matchup was made, and with tickets going on sale today, the pair met at the Novo by Microsoft in Los Angeles, California for a press conference.

Wilder refused to answer questions or pose for photographs as is customary at these events, but he did share an intense face-off with Fury, which neither man wanted to break for well over five whole minutes.

However, Fury was more than willing to get in his share of the trash talk, going back-and-forth with trainer Malik Scott while his opponent wore headphones to block out the noise of the event.

“Wilder is a stubborn person,” Fury told reporters in LA.

“So he’s got his own mentality and he wants to do things his own way, so listening to other people is not what Deontay does and he’s going to do what he’s going to do.”

But Scott hit back, telling Fury that he was in control as trainer, saying: “As far as training, he’s doing everything I’m telling him to do.

“Sugar Hill [Fury’s trainer] just said you’re a one-punch knockout artist now, but there’s no history of you knocking anyone out with one punch, so are you just going to revert.”

And the pair revealed during their heated argument that they sparred years ago, with Fury rupturing Scott’s eardrum during their training session.

“You can’t expect him to do something you couldn’t do,” Fury continued. “We did spar, and we all know what happened there.”

Scott hit back, telling Fury he shouldn’t brag about causing him an ear injury, similar to the one that Fury caused Wilder during their second bout.

“Me and you never fought, Tyson, you busted my eardrum the first time we sparred,” he said.

“That’s not something to brag about, you can fight, that’s what you do, I’m adding on to everything he does.

“Was Sugar Hill a great fighter that’s teaching you very well? So why would you ask if I can teach him just because I wasn’t a great fighter.”

Fury hit back, again claiming that Wilder would remain the same despite training, and telling Scott he couldn’t imagine the American changing his game plan from his old coaching setup.