By Charles Brun: Deontay Wilder’s rematch with Tyson Fury is now official for February 22, and likely to take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fury’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Boxing has confirmed that the rematch is now official for the 22nd of February.
WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) did his part in defeating Luis Ortiz (31-2, 26 KOs) last Saturday night to clear the road for him to defend against mandatory Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs). Wilder had a harder time working his way back to the rematch than Fury did, as he took Ortiz. That was a tough fight for Wilder. Fury has had it easy beating two B-level heavyweights in Otto Wallin and Tom Schwarz.
Wilder vs. Fury rematch will be on pay-per-view
The fight was made official on Tuesday. Unfortunately for boxing fans, this will be on pay-per-view rather than on regular ESPN and FOx. It’ll be a joint PPV event between those two networks.
It’s still too early to know how much the Wilder vs. Fury 2 fight will go on pay-per-view, but a good guess would be in the $70+ range. Fury is with Top Rank, and fights on ESPN, whereas Wilder is with Premier Boxing Champions and fights on Fox.
“We’re going to have an announcement before Christmas, but the fight is happening Feb. 22. You can go to sleep on that,” Arum said to ESPN.com.
Wilder’s managers Al Haymon and Shelly Finkel will meet with Arum to work out the location of the fight. They’ll be meeting a week from now to hammer out where the fight will be taking place. They want to get the venue agreed on as soon as possible.
The good news for Wilder is the fight will be taking place in the United States instead of the UK, because they’ve got to start selling ticket. There isn’t a lot of time before February
Fury will be the visiting fighter no matter where it takes place in the States. It wouldn’t be bad for Fury if the fight took place in New York, because a lot of his British fans could make the flight over the ocean to watch it live.
Wilder-Fury 2 possible for MGM Grand in Las Vegas
The MGM Grand is the same venue for Fury’s last 2 fights against Otto Wallin and Tom Schwarz. Wilder fought there last Saturday against Ortiz.
The Wilder vs. Fury rematch will be marketed on ESPN and Fox, and it should get a lot of publicity.
You can argue that Fury is a step down for Wilder from his last opponent Ortiz, but he should make up for that with his gift for gab. Fury will likely do a better job selling the rematch against Wilder than Ortiz did. Fury is a good talker, and he gives the impression that he’s a knockout type fighter. It’s the opposite. He’s more of a pure boxer.
Wilder had problems with Fury in the first 8 rounds of their fight last December. However, in the championship rounds, Wilder figured out Fur and dropped him twice. The bout ended up being scored a draw.