First blows landed in heavyweight fight of the year
Tyson Fury leaned into the microphone and issued an audacious prediction to Deontay Wilder regarding their heavyweight rematch.
“You’re going to sleep in two rounds,” the English champion said.
Wilder replied by picking up his own microphone and loudly sniffing it, mocking Fury for his past problems with drug abuse.
When these two unbeaten heavyweights got together in downtown Los Angeles this week, they picked up right where they left off across the street in December 2018.
Their thrilling split draw at Staples Centre has led to a rematch February 22 in Las Vegas, and both men claim they expect a knockout victory in what’s likely to be the mostanticipated heavyweight title fight in recent years.
Although both fighters are skilled in the craft of promotional hyperbole, it was still a surprise when Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOS) declared he can knock out Wilder within the first six minutes at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
A knockout prediction is no surprise at all coming from Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOS), whose peerless punching power dropped Fury twice in their first bout. The fight’s most memorable moment was Fury’s stunning rise from a 12th-round knockdown that had left him flat on his back.
“I’m prepared for more than ever,” Wilder said. “I told Fury two years ago I was going to baptise him, and I did just that. Rising up is part of the baptism. I told him he was going to go, ‘Timber!’ And he did just that. This time around, it’s called unfinished business. He won’t be able to get back up. This time, I’m going to knock him out.”
Aside from the fighters’ charismatic personalities and their penchants for wild public statements, this matchup is fascinating because it pits Fury’s boxing skills — which are impressive for any fighter, let alone a hulking heavyweight — against Wilder’s ferocious punching power, which is likely unmatched in the sport.
Fury nearly won the first bout with his impressive movement and activity, but Wilder’s strength proved an equaliser.
Fury changed trainers and hired a nutritionist with a knockout in mind “I can’t win a decision here, and I accept that,” said Fury, who won a decision in Las Vegas four months ago. “I’m going for a knockout because thinking I won the fight ain’t enough. I need to know. Thinking it doesn’t count. I need to end the fight.”
Fury believes he hurt Wilder several times in their first bout, but said he “just didn’t have the gas” that would have been necessary for a knockout.
He believes he can find that extra reservoir of strength this time, even if he has to abandon the boxing skills that served him well for most of the first fight.
Wilder suggested Fury’s bravado masks the British boxer’s worries about his chin and his American opponent’s ferocity.
“When you get knocked down like that, and you don’t know how you got on the ground, let alone how you got up, it’s scary,” Wilder said of his 12th-round knockdown of Fury. —AP