The first fight between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and former unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury at the Staples Center in LA on December 1, 2018, ended in a controversial draw. But there’s no question who won and lost the rematch two weeks ago—and it wasn’t because of Mark Breland. Even Wilder’s staunchest supporters, including those who spread disinformation about a nonexistent long count in fight one, know that Fury gave him good old-fashioned whooping. It would be great to say that at least Wilder took his beating like a man in the rematch; if only it were true. Blaming seemingly everyone and everything but his own limitations for the loss, even including the absurd get-up he wore during his ring walk, merely reiterated what has been apparent throughout his career, that Wilder can punch but cannot box.

 

With the dust having more or less settled and Wilder determined to win back his title, he has exercised the rematch clause in the contract for their second fight, so that he and Fury will meet a third time on July 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

 

Fury is of course the favorite. He has arguably already twice defeated Wilder, and unless he learns in the next five months what he has failed to learn thus far, it’s unlikely, unless his Hail Mary catches the sweet spot on Fury’s chin, that a victory is within reach.

 

If Wilder loses the third fight with Fury, proving once and for all that he can’t compete with an elite heavyweight, one and done seems a real possibility.

 

To remedy the situation, while inserting himself, as is his wont, in the conversation, Floyd Mayweather has offered to train Wilder.

 

“If I train him,” he said, “I can teach him how to win,” without revealing any details or plans which might bolster his assertion.

 

Fury, meanwhile, who we now know can fight as well as box, sees his career winding down in the not-too-distant future, and suggested he might just want to go out while on top.

 

“I've got two more fights left and then we're going to really think about what we're going to do from there,” he told a British news program. “I'm undefeated in 31 professional fights, this is my 12th year as a professional, so yeah, that's what I want.”