Deontay Wilder is getting a rematch with heavyweight champion Tyson Fury following Wilder’s decisive seventh-round TKO loss to the “Gypsy King” last month.
ESPN’s Dan Rafael reports that Wilder will exercise his rematch clause for a third fight with Fury on July 18 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the same venue where Wilder was dominated by Fury’s size and superior boxing skills on February 22. The two fighters had previously battled to a controversial draw in 2018.
Shortly after Fury handed Wilder the first loss of his career, the hard-punching “Bronze Bomber” claimed that his 45-pound, Game of Thrones-style black knight walkout costume had weakened his legs.
“A lot of people saw I wasn’t the same Deontay Wilder in there and they’re correct,” Wilder told the Athletic’s Lance Pugmire. “It’s my own fault. My uniform I wore was very heavy for me. I had no legs from the first round on. My main focus was to survive with my legs, and not on the principles I know and normally think of. I couldn’t follow up with the game plan because of my legs. I couldn’t do anything.”
In a video posted to Twitter, an emotional Wilder appeared ready for another epic pugilistic battle, telling his “Bomb Squad Army” that “the war has just begun.”
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) February 29, 2020
Fury won the WBC world heavyweight title and improved to 30-0-1 in his last fight with Wilder, whose record dropped to 42-1-1. Meanwhile, former heavyweight champion George Foreman has offered to help Wilder prep for the third fight.
“I can take [Wilder] back with me to where I was, take him back to the boxer he ought to be,” Foreman told the Athletic. “I know I can take him there. In those weeks, I can show him how to do it, and then it belongs to him. He will be able to keep himself up from that point and no one will ever again be able to take his legs.”
Maybe it’s Time for Deontay Wilder, to come spend a 2-4 weeks with me. Happy for Fury; but see a need for Wilder pic.twitter.com/JwVA6M8hSK
— George Foreman (@GeorgeForeman) February 25, 2020
Boxing insider Mike Coppinger notes that Wilder-Fury I generated around 325,000 pay-per-view buys, while the sequel generated between 800,000 and 850,000.
Sources: The rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury generated in the neighborhood of approxmately 800,000 to 850,000 pay-per-view buys in North America. Best performance – by far – for a heavyweight title fight since Tyson-Lewis in 2002. Wilder-Fury 1 sold around 325K buys
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) February 27, 2020
But it remains to be seen how many fans will pay another $90 to see a third fight, given how decisively Fury beat Wilder last month. But if Fury gets past Wilder, look for him to fight fellow Briton Anthony Joshua to unify the heavyweight belts for the first time since Lennox Lewis’s reign in the early 2000s.