By Jeff Aranow: Tyson Fury was in a jovial mood last Saturday night at his post-fight press conference following his 12 round split draw against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) didn’t win the fight, but he had given Wilder enough problems to be viewed as the winner of the event by the boxing fans.
Above all, Fury shined and was able to withstand Wilder’s formidable power to become only the second fighter to go the distance against the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist from the U.S.
Fury was the first fighter that was able to go the distance against a healthy Wilder. The only other fight to go 12 rounds against Wilder, Bermane Stiverne, took advantage of Deontay suffering a broken right hand in their fight in 2015.
“I hope everybody enjoyed the fight as much as I did,” Fury said. “How did I get up from the knockdowns? I don’t know. I had a holy hand upon me tonight and brought me back. And I got a good fighting spirit and I never say die.Even in the 12th round when I got knocked down heavy, I got back up and probably won the round. I fought back and wobbled him a little bit as well,” Fury said.
Fury obviously didn’t win the 12th round. That’s more wishful thinking on his part than anything. He was almost knocked out by Wilder after getting caught with a right-left combination while showboating. It was a wrong move on Fury’s part to showboat in the final round, as it had the effect of waving a red cape in front of an angry bull. Once Wilder saw that Fury was trying to humiliate him in the final round of the fight, he nailed him hard with a right hand that stunned him. Wilder then followed up with a perfect left hook that dropped Fury hard. For all intents and purposes, Fury was out cold and the fight should have been stopped right there on the spot. Most referees wouldn’t have taken the chance to stand above Fury and wait for him to wake up, but the referee that worked the fight, Jack Reiss, waited for Fury to open up his eyes after several seconds before he started counting. There’s no way that Fury won the 12th. He got up groggily and was able to land some shots, but Wilder was still teeing off on him and was the guy that won the round. Wilder did look like he punched himself out in the 12th while going for the knockout, but he wasn’t hurt. He was tired and throwing shots that was leaving himself off balance. The only one that was hurt in round 12 was Fury, and he was very lucky the fight wasn’t stopped.
“Listen, I’m not going to take anything from Deontay Wilder, ‘The Bronze Bomber,’ the WBC champion of the world,” Fury said. “Deontay Wilder is a helluva champion. He showed great heart tonight. I’m not the easiest person in the world to whip as you can see, but he persevered and kept coming all night.”
Fury was playing defense the entire fight, trying not to get hit, and not offering much back in return aside from slapping shots and a lot of jabs. It was the same effort that we saw in Fury’s fight against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. The difference was Wilder was willing to throw punches, and Wladimir looked like he was mentally incapable. Wilder landed roughly the same amount of shots as Fury did in each round, but there was a big difference in the punching power of the two. Wilder was hitting a lot harder than Fury. The judges had to pick between the two fighters in selecting the guy that was landing the better shots. It looked like a clear case for Wilder landing the far harder punches. It was a good story line with Fury coming back from three years of inactivity, weight and drug problems, but he wasn’t landing shots that were comparable to Wilder’s. Just based on the difference between the two fighter’s shots, Wilder appeared to win most of the rounds. Wilder also knocked Fury down twice in the fight in putting him on the floor in the 9th and 12th. It was a great story-line though for Fury to make a comeback and fight competitively against Wilder.
“One thing I do know is there wasn’t many people who thought I could come here and box like that after two-and-a-half years out of the ring and it’s not been any secret what I’ve been doing out the ring,” Fury said. “I’ve been living like a rock star. But that ain’t a great thing, by the way, because I’ve had a very low time doing it. And I’ve fought back from suicide and mental health and depression and anxiety and I wanted more than anything tonight to show the world that it can be done. Anything is possible with the right mindset,” Fury said.
Wilder had doubts not long ago that Fury would be able to lose the weight that he had put on to become the fighter that he once was. Fury showed last Saturday night that he could almost return to the same fighter he once was, but not completely. Fury didn’t quite have the same energy that he possessed back in 2015 against Wladimir, but then again he didn’t have to face the same pressure in that fight that he did against Wilder. Wladimir only pressured Fury had in the 11th and 12th, and even then, he was wasting time boxing from the outside and not letting his hands go the way Wilder was. Wilder was throwing his right hand with conviction last Saturday. Wilder wasn’t tentative the way Wladimir was.
“If you believe in yourself and you sacrifice and dedicate with the right help, you can come back,” Fury said. “I was telling me brothers and me family to keep quiet. There was about 8,000 travelers and Brits come from around the world. 10,000. They probably would’ve smashed this arena up if I had instigated it. I mean, to the floor. I just wanted to be an ambassador for me country and me people,” Fury said.
No one was going berserk after the fight last Saturday after the results of the contest were announced. Maybe if Fury hadn’t been knocked down twice, then there would have been a of angry boxing fans, but those two knockdowns Fury suffered in the 9th and 12th made it extremely difficult to make a case for him winning. A draw was viewed as a very fair result in the eyes of the boxing fans. For a challenger to be knocked down twice by a world champion in his home country, the judges bent over backwards in being fair to Fury in scoring the fight a 12 round draw. Fury didn’t do enough to rate the win. In a rematch, if Fury can do the same thing he did in this fight and stay on his feet for the full 12 rounds, then he would rate the victory and he’ll probably get it. But last Saturday night, Fury getting dropped twice and failing to out-land Wilder, it gave the impression that he didn’t do enough to deserve the victory. As such, the crowd didn’t go crazy afterwards at hearing the fight being scored a draw. After the final round, many boxing fans on social media were calling it a draw, and they turned out to be correct. Fury did enough to deserve a draw, which is a great thing. Getting a draw against a world champion like Wilder was a big deal given everything that Fury has gone through in the last three years. He should be proud that he was able to go 12 rounds against the heavyweight champion of the world and get a draw.
