LAS VEGAS – Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury don’t agree on too much. After all, they won’t be practicing diplomacy Saturday night in a long-awaited heavyweight rematch on ESPN/Fox pay-per-view at the MGM Grand.
But they do agree that the heavyweight division is in the middle of a revival that each believes will reach new heights.
“The heavyweight division is in a great direction, a magnificent direction,’’ Wilder told reporters Tuesday after arriving at the MGM Grand to a roaring crowd gathered in the hotel lobby. “I can remember when the heavyweight division was in, like, a dark hole, a dark tunnel.
“We had dominant champions, but nobody knew who they were, especially here in America.’’
Late boxing journalist Bert Sugar remembered when the heavyweight champion couldn’t walk down the street without being mobbed. Everybody knew him. Then, Sugar said, the division fell into such decline that the heavyweight champ wouldn’t have been recognized in a police lineup.
Wilder and Fury believe they have restored some of the division’s celebrity.
“I knew it was going to be a hard task for me, especially being the only heavyweight champion from here, from America,’’ Wilder said. “But I’m up for it. I think a lot of people don’t appreciate, or didn’t, appreciate it. But over time, they came along. Even the naysayers, the doubters.
“Maybe, too, I’m just the last man standing. Whatever the case may be, we’re all together. We’re here. The heavyweight division is booming. It’s on fire. They say when you have a healthy heavyweight division, everything else unfolds and it becomes great. It can only go up from here.’’
It only can if the rematch meets heavyweight expectations.