By: Hans Themistode
When Deontay Wilder was left on the opposite end of a stoppage loss at the hands of Tyson Fury on February 22nd, 2020, a rematch seemed to be out of the question. The contest between them was built up to be larger than life, but from a competitive standpoint, it fell short.
Wilder didn’t just take a hit to his undefeated record, but he also took one to his pride. Through 41 contests, the former WBC titlist had always found the mark with his right hand. This time however, he simply couldn’t find the target.
Nothing about their second contest was competitive, but then again, outside of two knockdowns in their first showdown in December of 2018, it wasn’t exactly close as well.
Still, Wilder was contractually owed a rematch and so, here we are. The chances of the former titlist might be slim according to most, but Fury believes that only matters if Wilder was actually looking to win the trilogy bout.
“There’s all these words about Joshua and the others but Deontay Wilder has his third fight to take,” Fury told Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain. “He’ll take the fight for one pure reason. And it’s called money. And there’s a lot of money on the table here and he’s got eight or nine kids to feed. So he’ll definitely take the rematch.”
To his credit, Wilder has always found success when facing the same opponent on multiple occasions. In 2015, Wilder was forced to go the distance for the first time in his career against Bermane Stiverne. Things were completely different the second time around two years later as he needed only one single round to get Stiverne out of there.
Wilder pulled off similar magic against Luis Ortiz. Stopping him in the tenth round in early 2018, but needing only seven rounds to get the job done in 2019.
His success in rematches coupled with his knockout power has Fury believing that although it is clearly a money grab from Wilder, that he still has a puncher’s chance.
“It’s heavyweight boxing, anything can happen especially with a dynamite puncher like Wilder.”