The rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury is officially a done deal as of Friday, as Wilder revealed the news on Friday to his many social media followers. Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) will be defending his World Boxing Council heavyweight title against Fury (27-0-1, 20 KOs) in a fight that will be taking place in the first quarter of 2020. First, Wilder needs to get Luis Ortiz out of the way in their rematch in September. Once Ortiz is dealt with, Wilder will turn his attention to Fury to face him in early 2020.
Wilder’s announcement of his rematches with Ortiz and Fury that he’s done this week stops Anthony Joshua from his efforts in talking up a fight between him and Fury. Before Wilder revealed the news of his rematch with Ortiz this week, Joshua was trying to pressure him into making a fight with him later this year.
When Joshua turned his attention to Tyson Fury to try and pressure him to make a fight with him, Wilder confirmed his rematch with Fury. Joshua now has no one to hype up other than fights against Kubrat Pulev and Oleksandr Usyk. Unfortunately for Joshua, there’s no fan interest in fights between him and those guys. Usyk is a good fighter, but he’s an unknown with casual boxing fans in the U.S, and he’s not a big name in the UK either.
There’s no word whether Wilder vs. Fury will be shown on pay-per-view, but it’s probable. The fight is too big for it not to be on PPV.
This will be a co-promotion between Premier Boxing Champions and Top Rank. It’s likely a first step that could lead to another huge fight between IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. and the Top Rank promoted WBO champion Terence Crawford in the near future.
Wilder’s announcement for Fury rematch takes the steam out of Joshua vs. Ruiz Jr. fight
This week, Wilder has taken a lot of interest out of IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s U.S debut for this Saturday night on DAZN against Andy Ruiz Jr. The first big bomb that Wilder dropped to scatter focus on the Joshua-Ruiz Jr. fight was the news of his rematch with Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz, which he revealed to his Twitter followers last Tuesday. This is what Wilder said:
“To all my fans, I want to announce that Luis Ortiz and I have signed for a rematch, with the date and site to be announced shortly. All my controversial fights
Must get dealt with ASAP‼️
That information from Wilder drained away a lot of interest in the Joshua vs. Ruiz Jr. fight. That fight as already seen as sick mismatch between an unbeaten world champion in Joshua and a chubby fighter with no wins of substance on his resume in 29-year-old Ruiz Jr. Whether Wilder chose to announce his rematches with Luis Ortiz and Tyson Fury to undercut interest in the Joshua vs. Ruiz Jr. fight is anyone’s guess. Never the less, that’s what Wilder has likely achieved.
Wilder undercuts Joshua and Whyte
The move by Wilder to announce both rematches against Fury and Ortiz has effectively pulled the rug out under Joshua AND Dillian Whyte with their hopes of fighting Wilder. Even if the World Boxing Council makes Whyte the mandatory challenger to Wilder if Whyte beats Oscar Rivas on July 20, he won’t be able to get the fight against against him for a long time. Whyte might need to wait until 2021 for him to get a title shot against Wilder. Whyte will likely run out of patience waiting for the Wilder fight, and instead face Joshua. Whyte should have taken the fight with Joshua for April 13 instead of backing out of negotiations.
Is Wilder’s Fury announcement a stunt?
It would be amusing if Wilder doesn’t have the rematch with Fury signed like he says he does, and he’s just talking to mess with the Joshua vs. Ruiz Jr. fight promotion. If that’s the case, Fury will likely let the cat out of the bag by letting his boxing fans know that the rematch with Wilder isn’t a done deal.
