The buildup to the boxers’ third heavyweight showdown has been subdued, feeling more like business rather than sport
Nineteen months ago, the anxiously anticipated rematch between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder marked a triumphant return of big-time heavyweight boxing to Las Vegas for the first time in more than two decades. And what a return it was: two unbeaten boxers in their respective primes with 71 professional wins between them settling the unfinished business of a previous stalemate.
For many years Las Vegas represented the heavyweight prize-fighter’s most aspirational and coveted platform – where the world’s biggest, baddest men contested for the richest purses against a glitzy backdrop of plunging necklines and immaculately tailored suits. The excess and chaos and seductive mythology at the heart of this desert town of 600,000 souls has made it the note-perfect home for a trade that has been called the red-light district of professional sports.