By Chris William: After initially choosing to make the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2 rematch a three-fight pay-per-view card, Top Rank and Premier Boxing Champions have wisely decided to add a 4th fight to the televised portion of the card for the February 22 broadcast on ESPN and Fox Sports pay-per-view.
The fourth fight will involve a Top Rank fighter battling a PBC fighter, according to Dan Rafael. There’s speculation that the talented WBO super bantamweight knockout artist Emanuel Navarrete will be on the card in the 4th fight against someone from PBC. WBC 122-lb champion Rey Vargas would be the ideal opponent for Navarrete to fight, but that’s HIGHLY unlikely to happen on just 4 weeks’ notice.
Wilder-Fury 2 undercard needs a big name
It’s too big of a fight for it to be thrown together and placed on the Wilder-Fury 2 undercard. However, Navarrete is someone that wants to fight a lot, and it’s predictable that his promoters at Top Rank will put him on the card.
There are a lot of rumors circulating about the ticket sales being poor, and the pay-per-view being less than they thought for the Wilder vs. Fury 2 rematch. It might have been a mistake for them to have delayed putting the rematch together. The second Wilder-Fury fight should have taken place a year ago when people were still talking about the fight.
Waiting a OVER a year was a strange move by Fury’s handlers at Top Rank. I mean, it would have made sense if they matched Fury against quality heavyweights so that he American boxing fans could get excited at seeing him face Wilder in a rematch. They didn’t do that though. Fury was matched against two obscure European heavyweights with zero punching power, and limited talent in Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin.
Fury’s popularity not helped from Wallin and Schwarz fights
You can argue that Fury’s popularity in the U.S, such as it is, might have actually dropped off after those 2 poor fights. A lot of American fans weren’t all that excited at the lack of action in the previous Wilder vs. Fury fight from 2018.
Fury ran around the ring, using nonstop feints, throwing weak shots one after another. When Fury finally could no longer run, he was dropped twice by Wilder in the later rounds. Afterwards, after the fight was announced as a draw, Fury was bitter, complaining and choosing not to be gracious about it.
Wilder wished he’d been calmer against Fury
“In that fight, I had the world’s attention. It was a date that I had to myself to share the ring with Fury,” said Wilder to Fox Sports about his first fight with Fury. “If there’s anything I would have done in the first fight, I would have calmed down a little bit more. I would have kept my composure.
“In the 9th when I knocked him down, I kind of buzzed him, but he wasn’t down. When I connected with a right hand followed by a left hook to his face, and he dropping like that. Seeing his veins stretched from his neck, I definitely thought it was over. I told Fury 2 years ago I was going to baptise him, and that’s exactly what occurred,” said Wilder.
“The first fight was failure in all ways. Fail, fail, fail, fail,” said Fury. “It was like turning a light off in a room. I suppose it was like dying,” said Fury in being knocked cold by Wilder in the 12th.