One Week on What’s Going on?
Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury – The Aftermath
So it has been a week now since Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder faced off in what would end up being a controversial fight. The decision to call the fight a draw has baffled fans and pundits alike with the large majority agreeing that it was Tyson Fury who should have been called the deserved winner, Deontay Wilder ends up clinging on to the WBC title by the skin of his teeth.
The WBC though have ordered a rematch between the two heavyweights and The Ring Magazine also responded by updating their rankings with Fury moving into the second spot behind Anthony Joshua, and Wilder sliding in to number three.
The fight was always going to be about Wilder and his punch because Fury was always viewed as the better boxer, the real question was whether he could out box Fury long enough to claim the win and avoid Wilder’s right hand. My own prediction for the fight was a Fury points win – the only other ending I could see was Fury out boxing Wilder but eventually falling prey to Wilders power. In essence both happened, a dramatic 12th round saw Wilder put Fury down and watching live on TV it looked as if though Fury was out cold and out for the count. To his credit Fury somehow mustered the strength to not only get back up, but to come back and win the rest of the round too! This was the second knockdown of the fight, both against Fury but outside of these knockdowns, Fury pretty much outboxed Wilder and won almost every other round, I gave Wilder probably three rounds, two due to the knockdown but the rest of the way was almost one way traffic with Fury peppering Wilder with jabs and making Wilder miss with his swings.
Fury has always been the most skilled heavyweight in the division, I don’t think many understand just how difficult it is for a man of his huge size to move the way he does, he moves better than many fighters in the middleweight division which is 100lbs less than him. Wilder discovered just how hard that is because he was struggling to get his timing down, aiming at a moving target and missing the mark almost every time he threw a punch. The fight also proved yet again that Fury does possess a sharp boxing mind – on the flip side it also showed Wilder does not posses much of a boxing IQ. Wilder only has one game plan and he uses the same game plan in every fight and regardless of who his opponent is and what the situation is. That game plan is to swing and if the swing doesn’t work, swing harder. Now you can’t really criticise his game plan because he has never lost a fight. Wilder knows and trusts his power and banks on his power to do the job for him, if Wilder was on a monopoly board, his power would be his get out of jail card. But he was exposed more than ever for being a very limited boxer when it comes to skillset. What I will say is that he does have some great qualities which make up for his lack of boxing technique, namely his power and his will. Wilder is a ferocious puncher, he really must be seen as one of the greatest punchers in heavyweight history, ranking him alongside names such as Earnie Shavers, George Foreman, Joe Louis and Mike Tyson. Wilder is an explosive puncher and can take you out at any moment in time, whether that is round one or round 12. Wilder also has great will, his determination allows him to keep going and having that ticker inside him means he won’t give up, he will keep fighting.
Tyson Fury on the other hand proved so much more, you can’t really say a bad word about the way he fought against Wilder last Saturday night. He did what he had to do to win the fight and win the fight he did except where it mattered most which was out of his hands, on the judges scorecards. It seems corruption is still going strong in the boxing world because I can only imagine Fury did not get the decision because certain people want another money making fight between the pair. If a big fight is close enough then it will be awarded a draw just so they can do it all over again and make more money, much like Canelo vs Golovkin I. Some of the rounds were quite close so a biased judge could swing the favour towards Wilder, Fury does not possess power like his counterpart so although he was picking Wilder off he was just pestering him as opposed to hurting him. If Fury was a bigger puncher, then the fight would not have gone the distance, Fury would have likely won that fight in the mid to later rounds.
Fury’s battles with depression and mental health are well documented, but also as impressive is the way he went to Germany and defeated the long time champion Wladmir Klitschko and now he has into another champions backyard in the USA and should have won that one too. In both fights the champion had a hard time fighting against Fury’s style, Klitschko ended up punch shy, unable to throw the right hand and Wilder was punch happy but kept on missing his right hand.
The reactions from both fighters has also been telling, Fury knows he got the short end of the stick but has not been complaining, preferring to enjoy the moment, enjoy bringing heavyweight boxing back into the forefront again and letting the fans and media say it all for him – that he was the better fighter on the night. Wilder though has spent the past week almost trying to justify why he should have won. These are the actions of a man trying to convince himself he deserved the draw, the social media posts have been forthcoming, claiming Fury should have been counted out but the majority of the boxing world disagree with his views and rightly so – I just cannot see any way in which Wilder won that fight, I can almost understand how one judge awarded it a draw, there were some close rounds and Wilder nabbed those two knockdown rounds 10-8 so made up a few rounds there which could have levelled up the score, but Wilder 115-111 is just plain cheating, I’m not sure what else you want to call it(or corruption).
The fight was such an event, the controversial ending only adding to this, that it has poured water on Anthony Joshua’s control of the heavyweight division. Now many see the division as a three horse race between Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, with fighters such as Luis Ortiz and Dillian Whyte close behind. The fight has bought more hype and excitement for the future of the heavyweight division and now all of a sudden Joshua isn’t the only big draw in the division, people will want to see more of Wilder and more of Fury. Will Joshua want to fight either of the two next year? I’m not so sure, Wilder confirmed his knockout power and Fury, who is still really working his way back to full fitness and knocking off the ring rust, will only get better.
Let’s see when the WBC can get this rematch done and look forward to another excellent year of Heavyweight boxing.
