When Fury-Wilder III was postponed a few months ago, the fear was that the great undercard would fall apart but that didn't happen. So now we have a total of three excellent heavyweight bouts and two more involving our Top 100.
First and foremost of course is the headliner, the trilogy between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
#1 Tyson Fury (30-0-1) 21KO vs. #5 Deontay Wilder (42-1-1) 41KO
For SportsRatings, this is only the 4th true heavyweight title fight since Fury upset Wlad Klitschko in November of 2015. By this we mean a fight where the winner would become our undisputed heavyweight champion. For example, with Fury inactive Klitschko, then #2, took on Anthony Joshua (ranked #6) but that was only for the interim title. Likewise when Fury came back against #186 Francisco Pianeta, only Fury would capture the title with a win.
The other "true" title fights were:
- In November of 2018 #2 Anthony Joshua beat #3 Alex Povetkin and took over the #1 spot;
- December, 2019, #2 Andy Ruiz Jr lost to #4 Joshua, who captured the title;
- February, 2020, #1 Fury (inactive at the time) beat #4 Wilder to regain the title
The first Fury-Wilder in December 2018 wasn't a true title fight as only Fury had a chance to take the title (and the draw kept it from being a title fight for him). The first Joshua-Ruiz bout wasn't a title fight for Ruiz, who jumped to #2 behind Fury.
Most recently, Aleksandr Usyk's win over Joshua put him at the #2 spot—and enabled Saturday's fight to be a title fight for both Fury and Wilder.
With Fury at #1, any win over a rated heavyweight would capture the belt. Wilder has fallen to #5 and is also inactive, but a win over Fury would put him well past Usyk at #1.
What about a loss? Fury would drop to #3 behind Wilder and Usyk, but remain very slightly ahead of Joshua. It would be quite the logjam. If Wilder loses he'll fall to near the bottom of the top 10.
#9 Efe Ajagba (15-0-0) 12 KOs vs. #11 Frank Sanchez (18-0-0) 13KOs
This is a great undercard fight and could headline most heavyweight shows. Both are arguably top ten fighters, but this bout will put one fighter squarely in the top ten and the other will be firmly out, for now.
Ajagba has 10 rated wins to Sanchez' four, but their ratings are pretty similar with Ajagba only two rankings spots ahead. The fighter who wins will jump to around #7, the loser will fall to somewhere in the 20s.
A lot at stake here for momentum between the Nigerian fighter and the Cuban, one getting a big boost, the other taking a big step back.
#23 Robert Helenius (30-3) 19KO vs. #54 Adam Kownacki (20-1-0) 15KO
A rematch of the fight from March 2020 when Helenius handed Kownacki his first and only loss.
10 years ago Helenius was as high as #4 in our rankings but injuries and a long layoff pushed him lower, and a KO loss to Johann Duhaupas knocked him out of the top ten. Since then he's been up and down, beating Gonzale Basile and Evgeny Orlov but losing to Dillian Whyte in a wide decision. He topped Erkan Teper but fell to Gerald Washington in a 8th round KO.
The win over Kownacki was Helenius' biggest win in nearly a decade. Kownacki was unbeaten in 20 outings and had 9 rated wins in our book and had just cracked the top ten before the loss. Currently down to #54 after going two years without a rated win, Kownacki would jump back into the top 20 if he can avenge his only loss.
#44 Viktor Faust (Vykhryst) (7-0-0) 5KO vs. #145 Mike Marshall (6-1-1) 4KO
Another undefeated fighter, Viktor Faust hopes to beat Mike Marshall and give himself a 2nd rated win. Faust (real name Viktor Vykhryst) beat Kamil Sokolowski last November. Marshall has never been in our top 100, having only a draw with Steve Vukosa on his résumé, along with a loss to Luther Smith.
#24 Jared Anderson (9-0-0) 9KOs vs. Vladimir Tereshkin (22-0-1) 12KO
Undefeated Jared Anderson battles also-undefeated Tereshkin, who was in our top 100 five years ago after beating Yuberty Diaz but didn't have another rated win among his three bouts since then. Anderson has 3 rated wins in the last 15 months, beating Johnny Langston, Rodney Hernandez, and Kingsley Ibeh.
We'll have round-by-round scoring for the headliner bout, probably for Ajagba vs. Sanchez and Helenius-Kownacki tomorrow starting roughly at 10pm eastern (the title fight should start somewhere between 11pm and 12 midnight eastern time, PPV on ESPN/FOX).
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