If Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder 3 on Saturday night is as close as the public betting, we are in for a treat fight fans.
‘The Gypsy King’ and ‘The Bronze Bomber’ will clash for a third time at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Fury’s WBC, Ring magazine and lineal world heavyweight titles on the line.
The last time they met – back in February 2020, also in Vegas – it wasn’t even close. Fury (30-0-1) battered Wilder to a one-sided stoppage defeat inside seven rounds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
But despite being completely outgunned that night, Wilder (42-1-1) still possesses the devastating knockout power which had seen off so many opponents before.
And time is a great healer, and it appears to have healed the memories of all those Wilder fans who didn’t believe he could be beaten.
While Fury is a firm -313 favorite on the money line with PointsBet (bet $313 to win $100), the U.S. public are standing by Wilder.
Deontay is a +230 shot with PointsBet (bet $100 to win $230), and so far he accounts for more bet than Fury just over 24 hours out from the big fight. A total of 55 percent of bets are for the man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with just 45 percent for Fury.
When it comes to the handle (the total amount of money wagered) it’s a slightly different story. Then Fury has the edge with 65 percent of the total handle. Clearly there are a ton of casuals out there who are staking relatively small amounts on Wilder, while the high rollers are taking Fury.
Fury vs Wilder 3 countdown
Fight week in Vegas has so far been relatively quiet, bar Fury’s promoter Bob Arum (now almost 90 years old) going off on press conference host Kate Abdo and ESPN boxing reporter Mike Coppinger on Wednesday.
There was no face-off between the two fighters, so no repeat of their six-minute staredown at their previous presser in Los Angeles in the summer.
Things should be different come Saturday night, when they finally enter the ring for a third time. While Fury won their second meeting, he had been on the floor twice in their first – a controversial draw in L.A. back in December 2018.
Watch the weigh-in live!
The next step on the road to the opening bell is the weigh-in, which gets under way at 1400 local time, 1700 ET. You can watch it live by click on the video window right beneath this line.
Fury had a 42-pound advantage over Wilder last time, weighing 273lbs against Deontay’s 231. That huge size differential definitely helped the Brit as he bullied and battered Wilder.
How much will Fury and Wilder make?
They took home around $25million each from their rematch, and a repeat here looks possible. That rematch produced around 800,000 PPV buys.
FOX and ESPN will both have the pay-per-view Saturday night and both have been promoting the hell out of it. It costs a cool $79.99.
In terms of guaranteed purses, these are always pretty small relatively speaking, with most of the upside coming at the box office.
Fury gets 60 percent of the basic guarantees this time – that means he will come out with $6million even if nobody buys the PPV. Wilder meanwhile is guaranteed $4million.
Like we said though, expect those numbers to be multiplied many times over once the final results are in.