The last month of 2018 starts with an intriguing encounter between defending WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder and The Lineal Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury.
With the perfect record of 40-0 with 39 wins by knockout, The Bronze Bomber is the overwhelming favourite to extend that unbeaten record at the Staples Center in Los Angeles tomorrow night.
Unlike when Wladimir Klitschko fought Tyson Fury, Wilder has promised to throw the volume of punches that Klitschko didn’t in order to knockout the unbeaten Fury who has a record of 27-0 with 19 knockouts.
The vastly experienced Cuban Luiz Ortiz who had over 350 amateur fights before turning professional, exploited flaws in Wilder’s unorthodox technique in what was a very close fight where the Judges had Wilder winning by one round before the devastating punching power of the Bronze Bomber knocked out Ortiz in the 10th round.
Fury will have been encouraged by what he saw in the Ortiz fight to believe that he can outbox Wilder and confuse the Champion as he did in dethroning Wladimir Klitschko of the WBA (Super), IBF, IBO and WBO titles. It may also be argued that he has psychologically rattled the Champion and perhaps got under his skin going by what we’ve seen in the build-up to the fight.
Whenever challenged with awkward opponents such as Poland’s Artur Szpilka and Luiz Ortiz, Wilder has responded with conviction in knocking out both challengers and the general consensus amongst the majority of fight fans is that Wilder will again be victorious against a ring-rusty Gypsy King.