Many fight fans walked away from the thrilling Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury split draw in December 2018 believing the "Gypsy King" should have won for outboxing "The Bronze Bomber." Others believe the WBC titleholder's two knockdowns of the British fighter should have propelled him to victory, especially considering that the 12th-round knockdown included a notoriously late count from the ref.
After blasting Luis Ortiz with a seventh-round KO on Saturday night, Wilder looked ahead to Fury and their Feb. 22 rematch, insisting that he'll drop the lineal champ again — and this time record the knockout that eluded him in their first bout.
"I hope he took notes and carried it back to his camp because I'm going to knock Fury out like I did the first time — point blank, period," Wilder said during the post-fight news conference.
Since their original fight, Wilder bulldozed through Dominic Breazeale in May and Ortiz on Saturday night, while Fury produced a second-round TKO of virtually unknown Tom Schwarz in June and got more than he bargained for in a unanimous decision over Otto Wallin in September. After that, Fury had a WWE match with Braun Strowman in October and is currently teasing a mixed martial arts debut.
Wilder hasn't been impressed with anything Fury has done in 2019.
"I'm not around here running around doing a hundred thousand things," Wilder said. "I was the one who demanded the rematch as soon as possible — especially when it was a controversial decision. I'm the one fighting the top, the best of the best in the division. I don't see no other fighters risking any fights."
"Last time I checked, Fury only had two big fights on his resume and that's a win against (Wladimir) Klitschko and a knockout against me," he continued, referring to his feeling that he should've been given the KO victory in their first bout. "The last two was against up-and-coming fighters. Look at me ... I'm putting my title on the line each and every time."
It's hard to argue with what Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) is saying, as his victory over Ortiz tied him with Muhammad Ali for 10 consecutive defenses of the heavyweight title.
While some fight fans and pundits alike will certainly bring up Wilder's boxing skills in comparison to Fury's heading into their rematch, "The Bronze Bomber" warns that they can do so at their own risk.
"My style is here, what I bring to boxing is here and I ain't going anywhere," Wilder said. "People always talk about skills and skills and skills, but as I can see it, I'm still undefeated."