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LAS VEGAS – Tyson Fury fought about as effectively as imaginable at 273 pounds during his rematch with Deontay Wilder.
That hasn’t stopped him, according to his trainer, from packing potentially another 20 pounds on his 6-feet-9 frame in advance of his third heavyweight title fight with Wilder. Fury, however, wouldn’t commit during an interview with BoxingScene.com even to approximating what he’ll weigh when he steps on the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s scale Friday afternoon at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“You know, heavyweight boxing, like I said out there, as a heavyweight it’s not really important what I come in at,” Fury said. “Whether I come in at 220 pounds or 290, it’s really unimportant. We don’t train to make a weight or whatever. Whatever I fight at is what I fight at. Whatever I walk in that ring at, or whatever I jump on them scales at, then that’s what it is. Like, I’m not gonna starve me self on the day of the weigh-in to make a number on the scale.
“Or I’m not gonna overeat to make a number on the scale. I’m a massive giant anyway. Whatever I weigh on the day is what I’ll weigh. It’s not something that we’re interested in, weight, anyway, because I’ve been in the gym training and boxing for the last 10 months for this and I’ve been performing. It’s really unimportant.”
England’s Fury came in 17½ pounds heavier for his rematch with Wilder than he weighed the day before their first fight (256 pounds). The unbeaten WBC champion felt more comfortable at the heavier weight and overwhelmed Wilder with his physicality and pressure on his way to a seventh-round stoppage in February 2020 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Fury floored Wilder once apiece in the third and fifth rounds prior to securing that technical-knockout victory 19 months ago.
Javan “Sugar Hill” Steward, Fury’s trainer, still thinks additional weight will benefit Fury in their third fight.
“It’s not going to be 300 pounds,” Steward told Vegas Insider recently. “It’s probably going to be like 290 or something, but not 300 exactly. Heavier than the last time by 20 pounds or so. Why not? The bigger the better, the heavier the stronger. He’s training with that weight he’s built up. It’s not like he’s just putting on fat, it’s building up muscles. The bigger the better, the heavier the stronger.”
Wilder, meanwhile, figures to come in at least near what he weighed the day before their second bout. The 6-feet-7 Wilder weighed in at a career-high 231 pounds prior to suffering his first professional defeat.
“He gonna come in at a very suitable weight, between 230 and 240,” Malik Scott, Wilder’s trainer, told BoxingScene.com. “The weight’s gonna be suitable. He’s firing on all cylinders now.”
Fury, 33, and Wilder, 35, will headline an ESPN/FOX Sports Pay-Per-View event at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night (9 p.m. EDT; $79.99). Caesars Sportsbook lists Fury as a 3-1 favorite to defeat Wilder again.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.