Last Saturday's fight between Tyson Fury and Otto Wallin was pegged to be a walk in the park for the lineal heavyweight champion in his journey to the rematch against WBC titlist Deontay Wilder.
However, Wallin had other plans in mind and gave Fury a run for his money. The fight looked to be on the verge of being stopped when in the third round, Wallin threw a left hand that caused a severe gash to Fury's right eye. With blood gushing down his face and pouring into his eyes, the ringside doctor took a hard look at the cut in the sixth round before letting the fight continue. From there, Fury took control and won by unanimous decision.
Wilder, who was watching the fight at home, admits that when he saw the cut on his TV, the rematch from their classic split draw in December was out the window.
“Otto Wallin was doing a great job, especially when he cut him over the eye," Wilder told ThaBoxingVoice. “I thought he was going to get a stoppage. It looked like it was three inches wide and two inches deep. That’s the worst cut besides the [Vitali] Klitschko and Lennox [Lewis] fight. That was the worst cut I’ve seen in my life.”
Fury held up his end of the bargain. Now Wilder must hold up his end before he locks horns one more time against "The Gypsy King" when he meets up again with Luis Ortiz in late fall with Nov. 23 being the likely date. If the "Bronze Bomber" gets by Ortiz, then he and Fury are set to square off on Feb. 22, 2020.
One of the biggest questions heading into the possible rematch is whether Fury's deep gash will be healed up by the time February rolls around. Wilder couldn't care less as long as the Englishman steps through the ropes and enters the ring. And when the bell rings, Wilder plans on continuing to target the area that caused Fury a ton of problems against Wallin and leave no doubt who the winner will be.
“That’s not my problem if he’s ready or not," Wilder said. "He signed the contract. That’s his problem. He better get ready. No matter what he does, when he fights me, it [the cut] is going to open right back up. I’m going to pop it right back open. He can get plastic surgery, duct tape or staples, super glue or hot glue, cement glue. S—, he can go get some of that flex glue. It ain’t even going to matter.”