The Implications of the Fox/ESPN Deal For Wilder-Fury II

The Athletic's Mike Coppinger is reporting that the highly-anticipated Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury rematch will be an ESPN production. It's part of a FOX-ESPN agreement that any future ESPN-FOX pay-per-view collaboration between the networks will be a FOX production. Wilder-Fury II will take place February 22 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

In the bigger picture, this is a positive for boxing fans to see ESPN, who partners with Top Rank (Fury), and FOX, who partners with PBC (Wilder), to work out a way to get this fight done. The upswing in boxing quality over the past few years has been negatively overshadowed by the fights that aren't happening rather than the fights that are. It's become as challenging as ever to get the fights that fans want to see with the sport being so fragmented between ESPN, DAZN, and FOX/Showtime.

Ideally, this news serves as some indication that more Top Rank vs. PBC matchups are on the way. Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. stands out as the fight to be made.

Wilder-Fury II is the frontrunner to be the fight of the year. The heavyweights have emerged as two of the sport's most recognizable personalities and have business to settle after a bogus draw in Part 1.

To give the fight just a little more juice, we now know the sequel will feature boxing's best broadcasts team. The ESPN-Top Rank crew consists of Joe Tessitore, Tim Bradley, Andre Ward, Mark Kriegel, and the sport's top broadcast talent, Max Kellerman.