Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury II: WBC heavyweight championship rematch – live!

Here’s a look at the odds for tonight’s fight at the MGM Grand sports book. At the moment Wilder is a -135 favorite (meaning a $135 bet would pay off $100), while Fury is a +115 underdog (meaning a $100 wager would return $115).

Although the highly pro-Fury turnout at Friday’s weigh-in suggest the Gypsy King will have the advantage in crowd support, the line shift indicates a majority of the action has been on Wilder. His price has shortened from -120 on Wednesday after opening at -110, while Fury’s has drifted from even on Wednesday after starting at -110.

Sebastian Fundora has won a unanimous decision over Australia’s Daniel Lewis in the pay-per-view opener. The action in the 10-round super welterweight tilt was far closer and competitive than the official scores of 97-93, 98-92 and 99-91 would suggest. Perhaps not the best sign the absurd 99-91 card was handed down by Glenn Feldman, who is one of the three judges for the main event, but we’re going to keep it positive tonight.

Here’s a look at tonight’s order of play. The pay-per-view undercard is kicking off at the moment with California’s Sebastian Fundora and Australia’s Daniel Lewis in the first round of their a 10-round super welterweight bout.

• Sebastian Fundora v Daniel Lewis, 10 rounds, super welterweights
• Emanuel Navarrete v Jeo Tupas Santisima, 12 rounds, for Navarrete’s WBO super bantamweight title
• Charles Martin v Gerald Washington, 12 rounds, IBF heavyweight title eliminator
• Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury, rematch, 12 rounds, for Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title

And here’s a look at the preliminaries that are in the books. They have included a major upset in the last hour as Brooklyn’s Petros Ananyan (15-2-2, 7 KOs), who went off as an 18-1 underdog, outpointed Subriel Matias, the fancied super lightweight prospect from Puerto Rico, who had won all 15 of his professional fights by knockout.

• Rolando Romero TKO 2 Arturs Ahmetovs, eight rounds, lightweights
• Isaac Lowe UD 10 Alberto Guevara, 10 rounds, featherweights
• Vito Mielnicki Jr UD 10 Corey Champion, four rounds, super welterweights
• Gabriel Flores Jr UD 8 Matt Conway, eight rounds, lightweights
• Petros Ananyan UD 10 Subriel Matias, 10 rounds, super lightweights
• Javier Molina UD 8 Amir Imam, 10 rounds, super lightweights

Hello and welcome to the Las Vegas strip for tonight’s hotly anticipated rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight championship. We’re ringside at the MGM Grand Garden Arena where a capacity crowd of 17,000 is expected for a delicious matchup between two undefeated giants with 71 professional wins between them, the two best fighters today in boxing’s prestige division, that’s been called the most important heavyweight title fight since the return meeting between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield in 1999.

Tonight’s main event is a rematch of their epic split draw 15 months ago in downtown Los Angeles, where the 6ft 9in Fury spent most of the night racking up points and using every trick in the book to negate Wilder’s show-stopping right hand. The American finally broke through with a knockdown in the ninth round and an even heavier one in the 12th, which left Fury seemingly unconscious on the way down, but the Gypsy King somehow made it to his feet and to the final bell, where the ringside judges handed down the stalemate. Mexico’s Alejandro Rochin scored it 115-111 to Wilder, Canada’s Robert Tapper had it 114-112 for Fury and Phil Edwards of the United Kingdom called it even at 113-113. (The Guardian scored it 115-111 to Fury.)

Fury’s performance was all the more astonishing as it came on the heels of a very public bout with addiction and mental illness, when he surrendered all the belts he won from Wladimir Klitschko while swelling to nearly 400lb during a 31-month layoff.

Both Wilder and Fury have won two fights apiece since their Staples Center classic, staying on course for tonight’s blockbuster rematch even as Anthony Joshua, holder of the division’s other three belts which in another lifetime belonged to Fury (and which he never lost in the ring), surrendered and regained in a pair of outings with Andy Ruiz Jr.

It’s just after 6pm in Las Vegas and the pay-per-view undercard is about to get started. The main event is expected to begin in roughly two and a half hours’ time. Plenty to come between now and then.

Bryan will be here shortly. Here’s some essential pre-fight reading.