By Tim Royner: Deontay Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel has revealed that the date and venue for his rematch with lineal champion Tyson Fury will be finalized within the next 2 weeks. The two have already been penciled in for February 22, but it’s still not official.
Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) got the last obstacle blocking his rematch with Fury out of the way last Saturday night in stopping the dangerous Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (31-2, 26 KOs) in the 7th round in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Before ending the fight with a right hand blast, Wilder had lost 5 of the first 6 rounds of the contest
Finkel to announce date & venue in 2 weeks
“It will be in February,” Finkel said to skysports.com. “In the next couple of weeks, we’ll solidify a site and date. For all intents and purposes, it will happen.”
Last year in December, Wilder and Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) fought to a 12 round draw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. They were supposed to fight an immediate rematch, but those plans changed after Fury, 31, signed with American promotional company Top Rank.
They chose to have Fury fight twice against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin to try and increase his popularity in the United States. Fury’s recent WWE match against Braun Strowman last October may have helped increase his name recognition with fan far more than his fights against Wallin and Schwarz.
Fury giving Wilder a “puncher’s chance”
“Wilder has nothing more than a punchers chance vs me, I’m gonna school even more than the first fight. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 #BUMCITY,” said Fury on his Twitter site.
Wilder dropped Fury twice in their fight last December, and some boxing fans feel that the referee gave the British heavyweight a long count, which allowed him to make it back to his feet.
Wilder is unconcerned with the judges, as he plans on knocking Fury out in the rematch. He knows how to land his power punches on Fury now, as he’s usceptible to straight hands rather than the looping rights that Wilder was throwing against him. When Wilder finally started throwing straight right hands, he dropped Fury twice, and had him reeling badly in the last 4 rounds.
“I never worry about if I’m losing the fight or not,” Wilder said during the post-fight news conference. “I’ve been blessed with something these other guys haven’t been blessed with, and that’s tremendous power. I know that when I hit guys, it hurts them. When you have power like I have, you’re not worried about whether you’re winning rounds or not.”