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LAS VEGAS – A different referee and one new judge will work the third Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder heavyweight title fight than the original list of officials the Nevada State Athletic Commission approved.
BoxingScene.com has learned that the NSAC has assigned veteran Nevada referee Russell Mora to Fury-Wilder III on Saturday night. It initially approved Connecticut’s Mike Ortega as the referee for their July 24 fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Their fight for Fury’s WBC title was postponed 2½ months because Fury tested positive for COVID-19 early in July.
Two of the three judges originally chosen for Fury-Wilder III – Nevada residents Tim Cheatham and Dave Moretti – still will score their rescheduled fight at T-Mobile Arena. New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld will join them at ringside for this ESPN/FOX Sports Pay-Per-View main event.
Another Nevada judge, Patricia Morse Jarman, originally was chosen to work this high-profile bout between Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), of Manchester, England, and Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Morse Jarman scored Yordenis Ugas a 115-113 winner over Manny Pacquiao in her most recent top assignment, a 12-round fight for Ugas’ WBA “super” welterweight title.
Moretti and Weisfeld each scored the Cuban-born Ugas a 116-112 victor of what the Philippines’ Pacquiao has decided will be the final fight of his celebrated career. Mora also was the referee for the Pacquiao-Ugas fight August 21 at T-Mobile Arena.
Moretti and Weisfeld were two of the three judges for the Fury-Wilder rematch in February 2020 as well. They both had Fury in front 59-52 entering the seventh round of that scheduled 12-rounder at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The third judge that night, Connecticut’s Glenn Feldman, scored Fury a 58-53 winner through six rounds.
Fury won that bout by seventh-round technical knockout because Wilder’s former assistant trainer, Mark Breland, threw in the towel to prevent Fury from taking too much punishment. Wilder was knocked down once apiece in the third and fifth rounds of that one-sided bout.
Judges decided the outcome of the first Fury-Wilder fight in December 2018. Wilder floored Fury once apiece in the ninth and 12th rounds, but the former champion settled for a 12-round split draw that night at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
California’s Alejandro Rochin scored that 12-rounder for Wilder, 115-111. Canada’s Robert Tapper scored their first fight for Fury, 114-112.
England’s Phil Edwards had their first encounter even, 113-113.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.