LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 22: Tyson Fury makes his grand entrance at the MGM Grand Hotel February 22, ... [+]
The rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury took place almost two weeks ago and social media data shows why Fury is the heavyweight king. Fury, who dominated Wilder in a one-sided bout, earning a seventh round technical knockout, owned the social media surrounding this fight from beginning to end, defining himself as a promoter’s dream.
Social Media Data Around Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2
There were 389,101 tweets mentioning Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2 on the day of the fight, meaning February 22, 2020. In comparison, there were 165,879 tweets mention Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury on December 1, 2018, the day of their first fight. The promotion that PBC and Top Rank utilized to promote the rematch was unprecedented, even though two years after the first bout, was able to generate over twice as much engagement for the second fight. This should serve as a blueprint and motivation moving forward for the top promoters to find ways to work together.
Looking towards Fury's potential next bout, there were 39,950 tweets mentioning both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua between February 22-23, 2020. This clearly shows that fans were initially more interested in an all United Kingdom showdown instead of a third fight between Fury and Wilder. Mostly because Joshua avenged his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr and there has never been a scenario in modern time where Great Britain owned all of the heavyweight belts.
The audience was far more interested to learn about the winner than the loser. Between February 22-23, 2020; there were 1.67 million page views of the Fury Wikipedia page compared to 791 thousand page views of the Wilder Wikipedia page.
In comparison around the heavyweight division, there were 1.03 million Wikipedia page views of Andy Ruiz Jr. between June 1-2, 2019; around him beating Anthony Joshua which was the most memorable boxing match of 2019. Around Anthony Joshua beating Andy Ruiz Jr. in the rematch, there were 507 thousand Wikipedia page views of the Anthony Joshua Wikipedia page between December 7-8, 2019.
Additionally between February 22-23, 2020 Tyson Fury generated 77,146 new fans on Facebook and 85,473 new followers on Twitter. In comparison during the same time period, Wilder received 13,498 new fans on Facebook and 30,039 new followers on Twitter.
There were 6.46 million YouTube video views of Fury compared to 3.42 million YouTube video views of Wilder between February 20-22, 2020.
Between February 22 - 27, 2020 there were 44,157 tweets mentioning both Deontay Wilder and his walk out costume. The top performing of which was a Tweet from Logan Paul, that generated 67,045 responses saying Wilder is a great fighter but that he shouldn't blame his performance on the walk-out costume.
Tracy David, the Chief Marketing Officer for social analytics platform ListenFirst said, "With Tyson Fury decisively beating Deontay Wilder; the social media data strongly indicates there's a new heavyweight draw in the heavyweight division. Fury generated more search interest on Wikipedia over the weekend than the victor of either of the last two Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. fights did in the comparable time period. Going forward, Fury's still unbeaten record combined with the strong growth of his social media fan footprint indicate there will be an even higher level of interest in the next Fury vs. Wilder fight."
Despite the more definitive ending, there's more audience interest in Fury vs. Wilder 3 than there was in Fury vs. Wilder 2 after their first boxing match. There was 21,741 tweets using the hashtag #WilderFury3 or #FuryWilder3 between February 22- March 1, 2020 in anticipation of their next rematch. In comparison, there were 10,642 tweets using the hashtag #WilderFury2 or #FuryWilder2 during December 1-9, 2018 after their first fight.
There's no question that complaining that he lost his fight because his costume was too heavy was perceived as a bad look for Wilder. Between February 22 - 27, 2020; sentiment around the tweets mentioning both Wilder and the costume was 18% positive. In the same time period, there were 465,082 tweets mentioning Wilder that didn't bring up the costume and sentiment around those tweets were 35% positive. Wilder’s new narrative includes questioning Fury’s glove.
The controversy around Wilder didn't overshadow Fury's victory on Reddit. Between February 22-27, 2020 there were 3,112 Reddit posts mentioning Fury compared to 1,831 Reddit posts mentioning Wilder. The top performing post around both of them generated 7,925 Points (upvotes-downvotes) was a link to a video showing the 7th round of the fight, where Fury won.
The story isn’t over with Wilder having exercised his rematch clause. One thing is undeniable though, Tyson Fury is the king of the heavyweight division. In and out of the ring.
