Former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew believes Deontay Wilder recover from the first loss of his career.
Back in February, Wilder tasted defeat for the first time when he was dropped twice and stopped in the seventh round by Tyson Fury, who walked away with the WBC heavyweight crown.
The first time around, Wilder and Fury fought to a controversial twelve round split draw in December 2018.
Wilder has already exercised an immediate rematch clause, which is going to force a third fight with Fury in the fall. It was slated for July 18th, but then it was pushed back due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The contest is now being targeted for the month of October.
Beyond Fury, Bellew expects Wilder to return to his position of being one of the top fighters in the weight class. Bellew is backing him to do this, because he doesn’t believe other boxers in the weight class will be able to execute the same game plan that Fury can.
“He deserved an awful lot of credit for the last fight [against Fury] because he was taking a one-sided pounding and beating, and he showed the heart of a lion,” Bellew said during an appearance on ‘Colin Murray’s 52 podcast. “He will be back.
“Not anybody can carry out Tyson Fury’s game plan – so don’t think this guy will come back and everyone can do that to him. That’s not going to happen.
“Very very few will be able to dictate the pace and dictate the range to Deontay Wilder like Tyson Fury did. Tyson Fury is a master boxer.”