By Mike Smith: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder weighed in 44 lbs lighter than challenger Tyson Fury in weighing in at 212.5 lbs on Friday for their fight this Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The 212.5 lbs represents the second lowest weight of Wilder’s career next to the 207 lbs he weighed for his debut fight against Ethan Cox in November 2008. Fury weighed in at 256.5 lbs., which is about the norm for him.
Wilder, 6’7″, wearing a black skeleton mask during the weigh-in, which made him look someone out of a movie. It was definitely a different type of mask for Wilder than the gold mask that he’d been wearing for a number of years. Wilder’s weight was the main thing that was hard to miss. He looked very lean at 212 lbs. It was hard to believe that he’s let himself get down to such a low weight, as that’s how much cruiserweights weight after they rehydrate their fights. There’ going to be a breaking point if Wilder lets himself get much lower than his current weight. He might not get past Fury at 212 lbs. That’s too low.
For Fury’s best win of his career over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, he weighed 247 lbs, but that was a weight that was designed to help his mobility for the fight. Fury’s game plan for the Klitschko fight was to circle the ring endlessly for 12 rounds to keep from getting hit, and it worked well. Fury stayed in motion the entire fight and wound up winning a 12 round unanimous decision. It was ugly though. Fury spoiled for 12 rounds, and was given a decision that you can argue should have gone the other way.
The referee for the Wilder vs. Fury fight is experienced referee Jack Weiss. He’s been around long enough to know that he’s not going to fall apart mentally if he needs to make a tough decision in the fight. Weiss can think on his feet. The only thing you can hope is that Weiss doesn’t put up with any fouling from either fighter. Fury, 30, is the guy that Weiss will need to keep his eye in order to make sure he doesn’t start throwing rabbit punches in the fight like he did in the Wladimir Klitschko fight in 2015.
“This is an important fight for boxing, because it’s two undefeated champions facing off,” Fury said. ”There have been people not getting in the ring with top guys for whatever reason, but here you have two fighters stepping up and onto the line.”
This fight is expected to decide the #1 heavyweight in the division. With Anthony Joshua reluctant to face Wilder, 32, to decide who the #1 heavyweight is in the division, Fury has moved past him to pick out the top guy and the #2 guy. Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) will need to be happy at being #3 in the weight class until he’s ready to fight the #1 guy. Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz is currently the #3 heavyweight in the division, which means it’s a toss-up in saying who will deserve to be the #3 guy after Saturday night. It’s hard to say it’s Joshua because he’s not stepping it up to fight the best. He had a chance of fighting Wilder in September, but he chose to face 39-year-old Alexander Povetkin instead.
Wilder by far is the biggest power puncher in the sport, bar none. With his powerful right hand and one-punch power, Deontay has cut a path through the heavyweight division since turning pro 10 years ago in 2008 following the 2008 Olympics. Only one heavyweight has gone the distance with Wilder, and that was Bermane Stiverne in 2015. The only reason Wilder didn’t knock Stiverne out was because he suffered a broken right hand early in the fight. In the rematch against Stiverne last year in November, Wilder knocked him out in the 1st round. Wilder wants to make sure he knocks out every opponent he faces from here on out, and finishes his career up by breaking Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record in impressive fashion. Wilder is only 11 fights away from breaking Mayweather’s record. Although Mayweather is expected to continue his boxing career in 2019 against Manny Pacquiao in a rematch, he’s not likely fight more than once more twice before before he’s finally finished as a fighter.
In other weights on the card, IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd (22-0, 15 KOs) weighed in at 152.6 lbs for his fight against Jason Welborn (24-6, 7 KOs). This is a stay busy fight for the 28-year-old Hurd to help him test out his surgically repaired left shoulder that he recently had operated on following his 12 round split decision win over Erislandy Lara last April. Welborn is essentially the sacrificial lamb for Hurd to deal with on Saturday night. Welborn weighed in at 152.5 lbs. He’s a British domestic level fighter, but he clearly doesn’t belong fighting for a world title against what many boxing fans feel is the best fighter in the 154 lb division bar none. This fight is going to go about as long as Hurd wants it to. He tends to wear his opponents down slowly, and then comes on in the second half of the contest to score a stoppage. Welborn will land his shots early on, but once Hurd starts putting pressure on him in the later rounds, he’ll fold.
Former heavyweight world title challenger Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (29-1, 24 KOs) weighed in at 241 lbs for his 10 round fight against Travis Kauffman (32-2-1, 23 KOs). For his part, Kauffman, 33, weighed in at 229 lbs. He’s 14 lbs lighter, and he’ll be giving away a lot in terms of punching power and talent in this fight. Although Kauffman has only twice in his career, he’s not as good as his record would portray him to be. Most of Kauffman’s wins have come against lower level journeyman fighters or guys that were just starting out and didn’t belong inside the ring with an experienced guy like him.
Heavyweight Joe Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs) weighed in at 262 lbs for his 10 round fight against gatekeeper Joe Hanks (23-2, 15 KOs). Hanks weighed in at 247.5 lbs. Joyce’s weight’s weight is his second fight in a row over 260 lbs. In his previous fight against Iago Kiladze last September, Joyce’s weight shot up from 251 lbs to 263 lbs. Joyce knocked out Kiladze in the 5th round. It’s hard to say whether Joyce improved or not as a fighter, because this is a guy that he would have taken apart even at 250 lbs. Joyce, 6’6”, did look more imposing at his new weight of 263 lbs for the Kiladze fight.
Joyce needs an impressive performance against Hank’s to keep him moving upwards in the heavyweight rankings. He’s currently ranked #10 with the World Boxing Association right now. Joyce isn’t rated by the IBF, WBC or WBO. As such, he’s going to need to keep moving forward in the rankings in order to get ranked high enough for a title shot. The WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title is vacant at the moment, but Matchroom Boxing USA fighter Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller is expected to be fighting for that title soon. Joyce wants to fight Miller, but he’s not been able to get the American heavyweight to fight him. Joyce’s manager Sam Jones wants to try and line up a fight between him and Luis Ortiz in 2019. That’ a fight that could be made. Ortiz wants a rematch against Wilder, but he might go for the idea of fighting Joyce if enough money is offered to him. That’s the great thing about Ortiz. He’s confident of his ability and not afraid to fight the best in the division.