TYSON FURY was struggling to get his February 22 rematch with Deontay Wilder live stream long before he needed 47 stitches and two months R&R.
The Gyspy King insists he has a signed and sealed contract with the American WBC boss to rerun their thrilling December 1 draw at the start of Spring of 2020 .
But the delay in the Bronze Bomber announcing his reunion with Cuban veteran Luis Ortiz is making that date look increasing vulnerable.
When Wilder visited London in late July, he was confident of a second win over Ortiz on November 9 and an early 2020 dance with Fury.
But that early winter fight has now been axed and the next date on the slate is November 23, but is still yet to be confirmed.
If the PBC/Al Haymon stablemates do eventually revisit Wilder’s round 10 KO win on that Saturday evening then it leaves just 13 weeks for him to recover and retrain for his run-in with Fury.
But the most recent gaps between Wilder’s world title defences have been five, nine, four and eight MONTHS and none of those rivals have needed as much specialist attention as Fury.Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury have already been in the ring together once and are set to do it all again in one of the most widely-anticipated rematches in recent heavyweight memory.
The WBC heavyweight world title will be on the line once again after the split-decision draw in the first contest saw Wilder walk away with the belt that he has now held for almost five years.
But Fury is the first man to have faced him and not lost in the professional ranks and will be looking to go one better and beat him this time around to take him back to the top of heavyweight boxing for the first time since he beat Wladimir Klitschko back in 2015.
Most champions will have an immediate rematch clause built into any contract for a fight, enabling them to regain their title in case of an upset. It was this such clause that allowed Anthony Joshua to get straight back in the ring with Andy Ruiz Jr and regain his three heavyweight belts last Saturday.
It is understood that, unusually, both fighters had a rematch clause in their contracts, meaning that a decisive result would have resulted in an immediate re-run.
But even with the tied result back in December last year, the fight that saw Fury twice get up off the canvas was such an instant classic that there was little doubt the pair would meet again.
Wilder confirmed in the summer that contracts had been signed and 22 February is set to be the day the pair will meet again, after the American came through another entertaining rematch against Cuba's Luis Ortiz.
The Staples Center in Los Angeles held the first fight, although the bout failed to sell out the 21,000-seater stadium.
The rematch has been confirmed for Las Vegas but the exact location has not yet been revealed.
The MGM Grand looks to be in the running, where the Garden Arena holds as many as 17,000, and Fury himself made his Vegas debut there against Tom Schwartz in June.
Wilder has also fought there twice before, in his most recent fight against Ortiz and when he first became a world champion against Bermane Stiverne, suggesting both men would be quite happy to return to the famous hotel.
With the headline bout still some time off, no fighters have been confirmed on the undercard thus far.
However, Frank Warren is likely to bring over a number of his best fighters to support Fury: heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce fought before the first fight, as did Isaac Lowe, the featherweight who trains alongside the self-styled "Gypsy King".
Ortiz also featured on that card last year, producing a late stoppage against Travis Kauffman, and would not be a surprising inclusion.
Predicting the exact timings of boxing matches is notoriously difficult but generally the main events in Las Vegas get underway somewhere between 4am and 5am UK time.
In the US, Fury has signed a lucrative TV deal with ESPN, reportedly worth more than £80million.
But back in the UK, the fight will be a pay-per-view event on BT Sport Box Office, available on most satellite boxes for a one-off fee.
