Predictions: Who wins Wilder-Fury III? Bayless, Sharpe and Broussard make their picks
Saturday is the finale of the Deontay Wilder – Tyson Fury trilogy and it's slated to be one of boxing's biggest nights in recent memory.
It's a fight that has just about everything: top-billed competitors with boundless star-power, a Vegas destination, championship ramifications and plenty of smack talk leading up to the opening bell.
What it doesn't have yet? A winner.
Ahead of Saturday, predictions have come by the plenty, as experts and fans alike have deposited their two cents into the rich conversation.
It's Tyson Fury who currently leads the way in such discussions. Per FOX Bet, Fury is favored at -300, while Wilder opens as the underdog with +245 odds (meaning if you bet on $100 on Wilder, you'll return $245).
But those odds mean little to Skip Bayless, who believes Wilder will pull off the "upset." He outlined his case on Friday morning's edition of "Undisputed."
"Wilder is at the rightest place at the rightest time. This is so much mental. It's mano a mano, but it's mind versus mind. All of a sudden, I'm reading the tea leaves on Tyson Fury, and I don't love his mental state. Let's step back and look at it: He did not want this fight. It had to go to the arbitrator. His mind and heart was on Anthony Joshua."
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While Fury's had an uphill battle to climb to fully prep himself for Saturday's showdown – including two bouts with COVID-19 – Shannon Sharpe thinks Fury is sufficiently conditioned for battle.
"[Wilder] fights in one style, that's all he knows. He's a puncher. He's not a boxer, and he's looking to land that one big shot to get you out of there."
Sharpe went on to laud Fury's tactician-like approach.
"Fury is really, really smart. He's a boxer and he's very skilled. He knows the traps that Deontay Wilder is trying to lay for him. And he does a great job of staying away. He dominated the second fight, and at no point did you think. ‘Man, Deontay Wilder is winning this fight.’ [Fury] was just toying with him."
"First Things First's" Chris Broussard shared Sharpe's stance.
"Obviously Fury is bigger and he's the much better boxer," Broussard said on Friday.
"Wilder's new staff was supposed to teach him some boxing skills, but can you teach an old dog new tricks, or will he revert to being the slugger that he was once the going gets tough? I think it's going to be a good fight, much closer than the second one, but I've got Fury in a unanimous decision in one that goes down for the ages."
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Ring walks for Wilder-Fury III are slated to kick off around 11 P.M. ET. You can order the fight here!
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