TYSON FURY LOOKS TO STAY BUSY AS DEONTAY WILDER RE-MATCH LOOMS AHEAD
On Saturday 14th at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas, former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury returns to the ring against Swedish native Otto Wallin.
In his Top Rank/ESPN debut earlier this year, Fury (28-0-1 20 KO) defeated a relatively unknown Tom Schwarz via TKO in the second round, making easy work of his over-matched opponent. Like Schwarz, Wallin (20-0 13 KO) is an unheralded prospect going into his fight with Fury.
Since coming back from a depression and drug-filled two-year hiatus in 2018, Fury has competed in four fights; a stoppage win over Sefer Seferi, a decision win over Francesco Pianeta, a draw with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and his TKO win over Schwarz.
Fury’s fight with Wilder in December of 2018 was one of the biggest and best heavyweight championship fights in recent memory. Wilder and Fury are slated to meet each other in the ring in February of 2020, but Fury has to get past Wallin first. He’s heavily favoured to do so.
Wilder will have to win a rematch with Luis Ortiz, which is not finalized yet but will most likely take place before the end of the year.
In the co-main event, WBO super bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarrete (28-1 24 KO) will defend his world title against Juan Miguel Elorde (28-1 15 KO) just weeks after his previous title defense.
On Aug. 17, Navarette knocked out Francisco De Vaca in three rounds at the new Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.
Navarrete captured his WBO belt when he beat a then-undefeated Isaac Dogboe via unanimous decision back in December of 2018. The pair met in a rematch in May of this year, this time with Navarette scoring a stoppage win in the 12th and final round.
Also on the card is former two-division world champion Jose Pedraza taking on Jose Zepeda in a lightweight matchup.
Pedraza (26-2 13 KO) is coming off a ninth round TKO win over Antonio Lozada in May. The win over Lozada was Pedraza’s first victory after losing a decision to current WBC/WBA/WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, who is arguably the best fighter in the sport today.
The other loss for Pedraza came at the hands of current WBA super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis, who is another talented boxing phenom. Nobody, other than Lomachenko and Davis, has been able to beat the Puerto Rican pugilist.
Pedraza has racked up an impressive resume over the years, with wins over Ray Beltran, Tevin Farmer, Edner Cherry, and Stephen Smith. A win over Zepeda on Saturday will most likely put Pedraza on a fast-track towards another world title opportunity.
Zepeda (30-2 25 KOs) is rebounding from a majority decision loss to Jose Ramirez, who currently holds the WBO/WBC titles at lightweight. The loss to Ramirez in February of this year has been the only title opportunity of Zepeda’s career so far, as Ramirez held the WBO lightweight strap at that time.