By Tim Royner: Deontay Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) and Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) could be facing each other in a rematch in 2019 in a football stadium in the UK. Fury’s promoter Frank Warren reportedly mentioned at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night that he’d like to do a Wilder-Fury rematch in the UK in a football stadium. The Wilder-Fury attendance was 17,600. If the fight could do better numbers in the UK, it would be a great idea to move it there. If the rematch takes place in the United States, it’s unlikely to pull in better numbers than last night’s attendance. Wilder vs. Fury isn’t a stadium level fight in the U.S. It might be a different ball game in the UK though.
Last night’s Wilder vs. Fury fight failed to decide a winner, as the fight was scored a 12 round split draw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The scores were 115-111 for Wilder, 114-112 for Fury and 113-113. Fury came into the fight as the underdog, but he left the ring at the night being seen as the winner by the boxing world.
The thing that saved Wilder from losing the fight was his knockdowns of Fury in the 9th and 12th. Wilder landed two hail Mary shots in those rounds that knocked Fury to the canvas. The knockdown in the 9th appeared to be a right hand rabbit punch from Wilder that the referee Jack Reiss should have waived off. However, the knockdown in the 12th was legit, as Wilder caught Fury with a big right hand that landed flush while he was showboating. Fury wasn’t ready for the blow, and he was bowled over. It was a miracle that he got back to his feet.
“I don’t know how the hell he got up. That was some gypsy s–t going on. He raised up from the dead,” said International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr. in commenting on Fury getting back up from his knockdown in round 12
Wilder says he’d like a rematch with the 6’9” Fury. It’ll be up to Deontay’s management whether they’ll go along with that idea. There are other fights out there for Wilder like a potential unification fight against Anthony Joshua in April. There’s also a mandatory defense against Dominic Breazeale that Wilder might be forced to take if the WBC orders the fight.
“The rematch, I guarantee, I’m going to get him,” Wilder said after the fight.
The boxing public isn’t going to buy into Wilder’s knockout predictions for a rematch with Fury. The ‘Bronze Bomber’ looked utterly clueless last night, unable to adapt to the crafty defensive style that Fury was using, and incapable of landing his main weapon, his powerful right hand. The only other weapon Wilder had besides his right hand was his jab, which was weak and ineffectual for the most part. Wilder’s left hand power shots lacked the accuracy and the strength that he needed to be a weapon for him last night against Fury. Wilder rarely attempted to use his left hand other than for jabbing Fury. The reason for that is Wilder has never properly developed his left after 10 years in the pro ranks. He’s still the same one-armed fighter he was in the 2008 Olympics. Fury took full advantage of Wilder’s inability to throw anything but right hands. Fury made sure he dodged the right from Wilder all night long by moving to his left and right when he would see him telegraphing the shot. Wilder would then badly miss, and would get countered by Fury.
“We’ll do the rematch,” Fury said. “We are two great champions. Me and this man here are the two best heavyweights on the planet.”
The performance from Fury suggests that he’s one of the two best heavyweights in the division, but you can’t say the same thing about Wilder. The way he fought last night, it’s hard to make a case that he deserves to be considered as even the third best heavyweight in the division. Off of that performance, Wilder has to be viewed as well beneath Anthony Joshua, Fury, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller and Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte. Those four heavyweights looks like they’ve got more talent than Wilder.
It’s debatable whether the boxing world has the stomach for a second Wilder vs. Fury fight. Fury looked like he should have been given the win, and it’s probably mot a good idea for him to tempt fate a second time against Wilder. If Fury has to fight Wilder again in the United States, he would be better off going in a different direction towards a fight against Anthony Joshua or a fight for the vacant WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight strap against the like of Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller.
Fury’s stock went way up last night while Wilder’s dropped off the side of the earth. Fury has a lot more options available after his performance last night. It would be wise for Fury to take advantage of his other opportunities and not waste time fighting Wilder in a match that the boxing public isn’t interested in seeing.
With the draw, Wilder is still the World boxing Council heavyweight champion, but his stock has obviously dropped considerably due to his poor performance against Fury.
Wilder looked helpless to land his right hand power shots last night against the crafty Fury, who did an outstanding job of making the Alabama native miss 90% of the time when he’d attempt to hit him with power shots. Fury’s upper body movement gave Wilder fits last night, as he was able to move to the left and right to avoid his best right hands, which was his only weapon in the fight.
Fury’s problem last night is that when Wilder got desperate in the championship rounds, he was able to hurt him when he would land his right hand flush. Like many boxing fans thought going into the match last night, Fury would need to pitch a complete shutout for him to not taste the canvas once or twice in the fight. In other words, Fury would have needed to keep the 6’7″ Wilder from landing any of his big power shots for him to keep from getting dropped repeatedly. That didn’t happen. A badly frustrated Wilder landed his big punches from time to time in rounds 9, 10, 11 and 12, and he did damage. Fury’s nose was bloodied early in the 4th after getting caught by one of Wilder’s hard shots. Later in the fight, Wilder landed a rabbit punch to the back of Fury’s head in the 9th round that put him down on the canvas. It was one of Wilder’s famous windmill shots that dropped the 30-year-old Fury. Wilder pulled out the draw in the 12th round when he caught Fury with a peach of a right hand that put him down hard. The boxing fans worldwide likely thought it was over with for Fury, given how hurt he looked when he went down. That punch would have knocked out anyone in the heavyweight division, but not Fury. He got back to his feet and immediately showboating, and taking over the round like he’d never been hurt. It was Fury that finished the 12th round looking great in hitting Wilder repeatedly with lefts to the head, and making him think twice about attempting to hit him again with a right hand.