WBC heavyweight world champion Deontay Wilder will have a highly anticipated rematch against lineal heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury on February 22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This is the single greatest match-up boxing fans could hope for at this time.
In a day and age where all too often the best don’t consistently face the best, both Wilder and Fury deserve full credit for putting everything on the line, not once, but twice!
Since their somewhat controversial draw when they first met more than 13 months ago, Wilder and Fury have each fought twice.
In May of last year, Wilder scored a sensational 1st round knockout victory against Dominic Breazeale. Then in June of last year, Fury scored an impressive 2nd round stoppage against Tom Schwarz. Then last September, Fury was awarded a unanimous decision victory in a challenging fight against Otto Wallin. And then back in November, Wilder scored a dramatic 7th round knockout in his rematch against Luis Ortiz.
Fury and Wilder are both coming off of matches where they needed to grind it out in order to emerge victorious. They both managed to stay the course, persevere, and overcome.
Wilder was being outboxed by Ortiz, and he was down on all three official cards when he delivered the dynamite knockout punch.
Fury was having a lot of difficulty against Wallin and he had suffered a couple of nasty cuts, but Fury hung in there and finished the fight strong to earn the victory.
A lot of fans are critical of the fact that Wilder was being outboxed by Ortiz until he landed the crushing knockout, but that’s always been what Wilder is all about. And a lot of fans are also critical of Fury’s troubles with Wallin, but Wallin was a tricky southpaw, and Fury still managed to battle his way through the difficulty.
Prediction: Wilder will earn himself a valid claim to the lineal heavyweight championship.