Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder will face each other again on Saturday almost 15 months on from a controversial draw that left punters desperate for a rerun of their thrilling affair in Los Angeles.
Tickets in Las Vegas are exchanging hands for thousands of dollars, the fighters are volleying spiteful words at one another with gusto, and pundits who have frequented Sin City more times than they care to remember have described the occasion as a “monster”.
Somewhere amid the chaos is the prize of Wilder’s WBC world title. If Fury wins it, all four heavyweight belts will be shared between two British fighters – him and Anthony Joshua, who holds the IBF, WBA and WBO titles.
Wilder starts as favourite (just) before the fighters walk to the ring at about 05:00 GMT on Sunday.
At Friday’s weigh-in, where a face-off was banned and the pair shouted abuse at one another from behind cordons, the American weighed in at 231lb – the heaviest of his career. Fury, at 273lb, has not been as heavy since his comeback fight in 2018.
Former world champion Kell Brook told BBC Sport: “It looks to me from that they are going to stand in the middle of the ring and have a right scrap.”
Here is everything you need to know about the fight – including the 5 Live Boxing predictions.
A handful of tickets remain for the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with prices ranging from $425 (£330) on the open market to $10,000 (£7,754) on resale.
On the Las Vegas Strip, fans can pay $100 (£77) to watch on a big screen, while the fight will cost $74.99 (£58) to buy at home in the US. If organisers sell the two million pay-per-views they are predicting, about $150m (£116m) could be raised before even accounting for ticket revenue. In terms of earnings, it will be an eight-figure night for both men.
It is the biggest heavyweight bout in 20, 30, or – if you listen to Fury – close to 50 years. And the hype is not lost on this city of bright lights and razzmatazz. Fight billboards run the length of the famous Strip; on the ground of the MGM Grand itself, three boxing rings act as stages for US TV networks.
“I have been coming here 25 years and I have never seen this kind of investment into the building of hype of a pay-per-view fight,” said BBC Sport boxing correspondent Mike Costello.
His 5 Live Boxing sidekick Steve Bunce added: “Two unbeaten men, elite versus elite. Let’s not lose the fact we are seeing something we don’t often see. This is a monster.”
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Source: BBC
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