By Scott Gilfoid: It’s now official that the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury rematch will be shown live on BT Sport Box Office on pay-per-view in the UK on February 22.
Sky Sports put in a substantial bid to try to get the fight card, but BT Sport matched, and they’re the ones that get to show it in the UK. In the U.S, the Wilder vs. Fury 2 fight will be shown on ESPN pay-per-view and Fox Sports pay-per-view. Fury’s Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is already given his prediction about the fight bringing in over 2 million buys on PPV.
It’s doubtful that’ll happen. They chose not to have a promotional tour, and they’re instead advertising during football games in the States. That’s a move that could backfire.
We’ll have to see. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was shocked when he heard they weren’t going to be doing press conferences or a promotional tour for the Wilder-Fury 2 fight, seeing that he would have done all those things to sell the fight.
Fury needs to stand and fight this time
Hopefully this fight is better than the first Wilder vs. Fury fight in December 2018. Fury, 6’9″, spent most of the fight trying to be evasive, and scratching at the air with a weak jab. Yeah, he out-landed Wilder by 13 punches, but they were weak back-handed shots that arguably should have resulted in him being penalized. Wilder landed the harder shots in every round, and took the fight to Fury. Wilder weighed in at 212 1/2 pounds for the fight, and was outweighed by 44 lbs by the 256 1/2 lb Fury.
Despite having a huge advantage in weight, Fury ran most of the fight, and was dropped twice in tasting the canvas in the 9th and 12th. After the fight, Fury and has fans complained about how they thought he should have won. The fact of the matter is, Fury hit the deck twice and was given arguably a gift by referee Jack Reiss, who chose not to stop the fight after Fury was knocked cold in the 12th.
Spoiling won’t work for Fury
All the spoiling by Fury may have worked for Fury in his fight with Wladimir Klitschko, but this fight is taking place in the United States. Fury will need to actually fight if he wants to dethrone the WBC heavyweight champion Wilder on February 22. Spoiling won’t be enough. It would also help if Fury can stay upright this time.
Fury is saying he’s to make a fight of it, and meet Wilder in center ring in the 1st round, and slug. Most boxing fans think Fury is just flapping his gums, hoping to trick Wilder so he’s unprepared when he uses his normal crafty style of fighting. Fury is capable of slugging with his opponents, but he’s only been able to do that against domestic level fighters.
The last time Fury went to war with an opponent was when he fought 210lb former cruiserweight Steve Cunningham in 2012. Fury stopped the much lighter and smaller Cunningham in the 7th, but not before getting shockingly dropped in the 2nd round.
Wilder vs. Fury 2 undercard still being sorted
The undercard for the Wilder-Fury 2 fight needs to have some quality to get fans to want to order this. For the first fight, the undercard was a mixed back involving good fighters in mismatches.
Here’s the undercard for the first Wilder-Fury 2 fight in 2018:
- Jarrett Hurd KO 4 Jason Welborn
- Carlos Licona SD 12 Mark Anthony Barriga
- Luis Ortiz KO 10 Travis Kauffman
- Isaac Lowe KO 5 Lucas Rafael Baez
- Joe Joyce KO 1 Joe Hanks
- Julian ‘J-Rock’ Williams TKO 2 Francisco Javier Castro
- Chris Arreola RTD 6 Maurenzo Smith
- Robert Guerrero KO 2 Adam Mate
- Jessie Rodriguez UD 6 Josue Morales
- Marsellos Wilder UD 4 David Damore
It’s still unknown how much the fight card will be going for on PPV, but it’s likely to be less expensive than the recently rematch between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr. on December 7 on Sky Box Office PPV. That fight cost a small fortune on pay-per-view, and it gawd awful in terms of entertainment.
It was a boring main event with Joshua running and holding all night long to keep from getting knocked out again. The undercard was woefully bad as well with an out of shape 271 lb Dillian Whyte struggling to beat past his best Mariuz Wach. It was mostly mismatches from top to bottom.
