After Fury defeated Deontay Wilder via seventh-round technical knockout (TKO) to capture the WBC and Ring heavyweight titles in February 2020, Wilder immediately activated a contractual rematch clause.[2] The trilogy fight was initially scheduled to take place on 18 July, but after Wilder suffered an injury and due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the bout was postponed until October. At Wilder's request, the bout was again pushed back to 19 December. After Wilder's team again requested to push the date back into 2021, Fury announced in October that he was moving on from a proposed third fight, stating, "they asked me if I would agree to push it to December.