Anthony Joshua may be the golden boy of British Boxing, but on December 1st arguably the UK’s most controversial sportsman will take to the ring against the current WBC Heavyweight Champion, Deontay Wilder.
The fight takes place at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, with Fury looking to head straight back to the top of the boxing world after overcoming personal demons and suspensions.
Both Wilder and Fury go into the fight undefeated, with the American having 13 more bouts over the course of his dominant career to date.
The fight will be Fury’s second fight in the United States, previously knocking out American fighter Steve Cunningham in 2013.
After overcoming Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 to become the Unified Heavyweight Champion of the World, Fury will be confident going into the fight in Los Angeles.
However, he’s unlikely to come up against a competitor with the raw power of the current WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder, a man with 40 wins from 40 bouts and a knockout percentage of 98%.
Fury has a less effective KO rate, but impressive all the same, knocking out 70% of his opponents throughout his 10 year professional career.
Wilder’s KO percentage isn’t the only impressive statistic he boasts, out of the 40 fights he’s had in his career, he’s averaged a staggering three rounds per fight, whilst Fury’s average is twice as much, with an average of six rounds per bout.
In total, Wilder has fought 37 less rounds in his career than Fury despite competing in 13 more professional bouts than his opponent.
Wilder may be the more dangerous out of the two when it comes to his fists, but Fury boasts a bigger frame, with both his reach and height two inches greater than Wilder.
His average weight through his career is also around two and a half stone heavier than ‘The Bronze Bomber’.
The pair only have one mutual opponent between them. Nicolai Firtha, of the United States, is the only competitor to face both Wilder and Fury, being technically knocked out by the pair in the 4th and 5th round respectively.
When it comes to TKO’s, Wilder and Fury’s records couldn’t be closer (40% & 41%), but their clean knockout percentage is drastically different, with almost half (45%) of Wilder’s bouts being won by this method.
Fury’s standard knockout rate is considerably lower at 11%.
This isn’t the first time that either fighter has had to come up against an opponent that is undefeated. Wilder has knocked out every single undefeated fighter that’s crossed his path, whilst Fury has KO’d and TKO’d two of the four undefeated competitors he’s faced.
We’ve partnered with Betfred ahead of the fight and the bookmaker is backing Wilder for victory at 8/13. Fury’s available at 11/8.
Considering that Fury has never been knocked out in his career, Wilder is at 5/4 to stop the fight going the distance.
Betfred think that a points decision is Fury’s best chance of victory at 9/4.
To catch all the action check out The Sportsman’s facebook and twitter feeds for live coverage from all the ongoings in Los Angeles.
In anticipation for Saturday’s (Sunday 4am GMT) big event, we’ve created an infographic detailing everything there is to know about Wilder vs Fury:
