This weekend WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder rematches Luis Ortiz Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas live on Fox pay per view.
A dangerous test that if he were to stumble in, would cost him a huge rematch with England’s Tyson Fury in February.
It’s been a long slog for Wilder in terms of building up his popularity in his home country of the United States in his professional career.
It’s only the last year or so really since his epic first fight with Tyson Fury that his fellow Americans and perhaps more fairly, American media, have taken to him.
His Instagram account is blowing up all the time and he’s appearing on more and more big name US talk shows.
But really, why did it take this long?
He ticks all the boxes in terms of what fight fans like in a heavyweight.
This writer summed it up well in my opinion:
Last time I checked all of the above is what boxing fans demand from big time heavyweight fighters.
This weekend big time heavyweight boxing returns to Las Vegas and if Wilder were to score another spectacular knockout win, that builds the Fury fight and other showdowns nicely for 2020.
A year that promises to be the biggest for heavyweight boxing in a long, long time.
