Fury And Wilder To Face Each Other Again Tonight. Here Are Some Mind Games You Should Expect
Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder to announce their trilogy fight by coming face to face on Tuesday at 9pm; third WBC heavyweight championship fight is on July 24 in Las Vegas; Fury won the previous fight comprehensively so how can Wilder bounce back?
The last time Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder sat at a press conference to debate their fight, the first meaningful blow was landed. Trouble was, Wilder did not realise.
“What I did last time wasn’t good enough so I’m changing it up, and we’ll look for the knockout,” Fury said. “It’s a bold move to fight fire with fire.”
Wilder rolled his eyes: “I don’t buy anything he says.”
But there it was, not so much a clue but a clear and obvious declaration from Fury that he intended to perform a 180-degree about-turn with his tactics. Sure enough, he rampaged through a startled Wilder in seven dominant rounds of their rematch.
They will come head to head for the first time since Wilder was left bloodied and floored, his unbeaten record and fearsome aura in tatters, on Tuesday at 9pm to officially announce a trilogy match for July 24 in Las Vegas.
It will be more than an obligatory media event, it is the first chance for warfare to resume, an opportunity for jousting before business picks up.
Their second WBC championship fight seems a lifetime ago in the twisting and turning world of heavyweight boxing – both Fury and Wilder are changed men, we don’t yet know if this is for better or worse.
Carl Froch says Deontay Wilder’s claim he lost to Tyson Fury because of his ring-walk costume is ‘ridiculous’.
0:32Jay Deas explains why Mark Breland threw in the towel
Wilder, feted as the hardest punching boxer ever before he was shellacked by Fury, responded to his first loss with a series of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories. More worryingly, over a year later he repeated many of the same theories. Time had now mellowed him.
His ring-walk costume was too heavy so tired his legs, Fury illegally tampered with his gloves (shot down strongly by the WBC), his trainer was “disloyal” for throwing in the towel.
Mark Breland has since lost his job in Wilder’s corner. Jay Deas, then the head trainer, blamed Breland in the moments after the fight and has retained a role in Wilder’s corner. But Malik Scott, once knocked out by Wilder, is his new trainer.
The past 14 months for Fury has been dominated by talk of a fight with Anthony Joshua to crown an undisputed champion which fell at the final hurdle. That inevitable disappointment must be quickly turned into motivation rather than complacency.
Tuesday’s meeting will now become a show of strength from champion and challenger.
The onus is on Wilder to exude the same destructive aura of old.
“The most dangerous person to be around is the one who has nothing to lose,” he has warned.
There is optimism from those around Wilder. His co-manager Shelly Finkel told Sky Sports: “He is definitely capable. Again, no excuses, he wasn’t the Deontay we know in that second fight and we’ll be looking to surprise the world.
“We’re not really that surprised if it happens, but everyone else will and I honestly believe Deontay is going to stop him this time.”
Neither Fury nor Wilder have ever looked into the eyes of a man who has beaten them before. On Tuesday evening that will change, and as a result, so will the complexion of the trilogy fight in this compelling rivalry.
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