Shortly after announcing his upcoming bout with Luis Ortiz, Deontay Wilder has also confirmed that a rematch between him and Tyson Fury will happen in the early part of 2020.
The announcement was confirmed by boxing journalist Mike Coppinger on Twitter.
The Rematch Fans Want
Fans have been clamoring for a rematch ever since the first fight ended in a controversial draw. Their initial bout was widely considered to be one of the best fights the heavyweight division has ever seen. Tyson Fury outboxed Wilder for most of the evening but the champ scored knockdowns in the 9th and 12th rounds. Fury appeared to be completely unconscious in the 12th round before getting off the canvas when the referee’s 10-count was milliseconds away.
Many people were initially disappointed about Wilder’s choice to fight Ortiz. Most boxing fans were hoping for the rematch with Tyson Fury or a fight between Wilder and top contender Anthony Joshua, the British boxer who is currently the WBA, IBF, and WBO titleholder. Deontay Wilder is the current WBC Heavyweight title holder and a match between him and Joshua would unite the 4 heavyweight belts.
The Wilder/Fury fight in December had 325,000 pay-per-view buys and Top Rank’s Bob Arum is confident the rematch can potentially reach 2-3 million buys. While the fight has been confirmed, it’s still not guaranteed to happen. Wilder still has to beat Luis Ortiz. Deontay Wilder is confident this will happen according to a recent Twitter post.
The timing of the announcement was strategic on the part of Wilder’s team. Anthony Joshua is fighting Andy Ruiz Jr. this week and Wilder is definitely trying to steal some of the spotlight since everybody’s mind is on boxing. A Joshua-Wilder bout has been rumored for some time but will not be happening until late 2020 at the earliest.
This fight is the first PBC-Top Rank co-promotion since the Mayweather-Pacquiao in 2015 The two companies were able to finally come to an agreement and make this fight happen.
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