Wilder- Fury will both appear on ESPN Saturday bowl coverage

With their WBC heavyweight title rematch now officially announced for February 22nd, champion Deontay Wilder and Challenger Tyson Fury will take advantage of huge U.S. sports television and media opportunities on Saturday.

First, it is not believed that the two will appear together in any kind of joint press conferences, like are typically done around most mega-fights.

Rather, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Boxing announced Friday evening that Wilder and Fury will each appear separately on ESPN’s Saturday coverage of the Peach Bowl and then, the Fiesta Bowl to talk up their second fight:

?‍♂️ Bob Arum has revealed that there will not be a press conference tour for the Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury rematch. Instead, Wilder will be in Atlanta and Fury will be in Arizona for the College Football Playoff games tomorrow at which they will promote the fight. [@ESPN]

— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) December 27, 2019

Wilder will apparently appear in Atlanta at some point prior to the LSU-Oklahoma National Semifinal Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Wilder, who is a Tuscaloosa native and huge Alabama football fan is a natural tie in with the SEC football audience in the South.

Obviously, Fury is from Britain and doesn’t have much/if any knowledge or interest in American football. However, he will likewise be part of ESPN’s coverage at some point of the Clemson – Ohio State matchup Saturday night in Glendale Arizona at the Fiesta Bowl.

Fury is obviously and outgoing self-promoter and will attract attention world-wide when he speaks later in the evening.

This is a natural tie-in with ESPN producing the pay-per-view of the upcoming Wilder-Fury rematch. As was announced on Friday, their talent of Joe Tessitore, Timothy Bradley and Andre Ward will call the fight. The fight will also be simulcast on Fox Sports pay-per-view, as part of the agreement between fighters and promotions.

There have been long-term negotiations ongoing between Premier Boxing Champions, Fox, Top Rank Boxing and ESPN to work out the logistics for the promotion and the fight itself, which will be held in Las Vegas the last week in February.

Wilder retained his title on a controversial draw in December of 2018, in a fight that many people believe Fury won. However, Wilder scored the only two knockdowns of the fight, including a dramatic 12-round one, where Fury just beat the 10-count and survived the final minute and a half to the final bell.

It is believed that the combined pay-per-view will have well over 1.5 million buys and maybe north of 2 million before it is over on both platforms.

Fury is the only man that Wilder has not knocked out in his 11 title defenses over the past four and a half years.

There also is reportedly another rematch clause for a potential third Wilder-Fury fight and that would hypothetically be produced by PBC, Fox Sports and utilize their announcing talent sometime later in 2020 or beyond.

For now, we wait for “The Bronze Bomber” and “The Gypsy King” to officially start hyping things later on ESPN Saturday.