Photo by David Becker/Getty Images
The undercard of the heavyweight rematch features action fighter Emanuel Navarrete defending his super-bantamweight belt.
Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder are rematching this Saturday in the first big heavyweight clash of 2020, the undercard features a less heralded heavyweight fight, one of boxing’s most exciting champions defending his belt and a prospect match up between a 6’6” super-welterweight and an Olympian.
Charles Martin (27-2-1, 24 KOs) is a former IBF heavyweight champion, a vacant belt he took against Vyacheslav Glazkov in 2016 and immediately lost to Anthony Joshua. He’s a southpaw with a rather unrefined game but a big left hand. He’ll be fighting Gerald Washington (20-3, 13 KOs) who is mostly notable for his 2017 KO loss to Deontay Wilder. Both men are coming off of KO wins but while Martin looked unimpressive against journeyman Daniel Martz before catching him in the fourth, Washington looked in great shape on his way to an eighth round KO win over Robert Helenius. Martin is the bigger puncher but Washington looks more equipped physically were the fight to go long. Due to the southpaw/orthodox match up, the fight looks likely to become a battle of rear straights with a lot of falling into clinches. If Washington can avoid Martin’s left hand in the early rounds, that looks like a fight Washington should win.
Martin vs Washington is nominally the co-main event but WBO super-bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarrete is more deserving of the spot. He took the belt in a big upset when he destroyed Isaac Dogboe and beat him up even worse in the immediate rematch. He’s been unable to secure big fights since but has been a very active champion defending his belt three more times in 2019, scoring three early round KOs. His fight against Filipino Jeo Santisima (19-2, 16 KOs) this week end isn’t the unification Navarrete hoped for and -2250 odds on the champion, the result isn’t in much doubt. Thankfully Navarrete’s fights don’t need to be competitive to be fun to watch. Navarrete is very big for the division and is a high volume pressure fighter who pushes an incred, especially with hooks but doesn’t punch as hard Navarrete does, likely can’t match his volume and has never fought anywhere close to that level. He’s willing to get into a shootout and it should be fun for a few rounds but Navarrete’s superior firepower should overwhelm him for a stoppage come the middle rounds.
6’6” super-welterweight Sebastian Fundora (13-0-1, 9 KOs) opens the PPV against Daniel Lewis (6-0, 4 KOs) who represented Australia at the 2016 Olympics. Unlike his height would suggest the southpaw Fundora isn’t an outside fighter, he prefers to fight on the inside and possesses a good left straight and uppercut but not too much with his lead hand apart from a left hook to link them together in combos. His footwork is limited when his opponent doesn’t stand in front of him, which showed heavily in his last fight, a draw against Jamontay Clark who outboxed him for large stretches of the fight. That’s unlikely to pose too much of a problem against Lewis who likes to fight aggressively. What might prove more problematic is his lack of head movement considering Lewis’ amateur experience and more varied offensive arsenal. Lewis is a bit small for the weight class which will be accentuated against such a giant but if he can avoid the uppercut on the inside, working the body and countering Fundora when he starts flurrying and leaves his head stationary looks like a good path to victory for the Australian.
Wilder vs Fury II airs on PPV Saturday, February 22nd at 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
Full card:
Main Card – PPV (ESPN+/FOX) – 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2
Charles Martin vs. Gerald Washington
Emanuel Navarrete vs. Jeo Santisima
Sebastian Fundora vs. Daniel Lewis
Preliminary Card – FS1 / ESPN / ESPN+ – 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT
Isaac Lowe vs. Alberto Guevara
Petros Ananyan vs. Subriel Matias
Amir Imam vs. Javier Molina
Gabriel Flores Jr. vs. Matt Conway
Arturs Ahmetovs vs. Rolando Romero
Vito Mielnicki Jr. vs. Corey Champion