Tyson Fury stops Deontay Wilder – Live Results from Las Vegas

By Boxing News - 02/22/2020 - Comments

By Mark Eisner: In a surprising upset, Tyson Fury 30-0-1, 21 KOs) laid waste to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) in stopping him in the 7th round on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)

Wilder’s corner pulled him out of the fight by throwing in the towel. He was bleeding from one ear, his balance was gone from round 3. It’s possible that Wilder suffered a broken eardrum from the cuffing punches from the 6’9″ Fury.

Wilder was down in rounds 3 and 5. Fury had a point deduction in round 5.

In tonight’s long-awaited rematch between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder and lineal champion Tyson Fury, the two will be squaring off in the headliner fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The card is being shown on ESPN and Fox Sports pay-per-view. The two will be trying to clear up the questionable 12 round draw from their match two years ago in December 2018.

The boxing public has had to wait all this time for Wilder and Fury to face each other again, and tonight they’re getting the chance to see who the #1 heavyweight is in the world.

The co-feature bout has former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin attempting to put himself in a position to challenge for a world title in facing Gerald Washington in an IBF title eliminator.

The winner of the Martin-Washington fight will be the IBF mandatory to heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

It’s a huge compliment for these two heavyweights to be given such a great position on the Wilder-Fury 2 card as the chief support since neither of them has done much with their careers recently.

Martin (27-2-1, 24 KOs) lost his IBF title to Joshua by a 2nd round knockout in April 2016.

Since that loss, the 33-year-old Martin has won 4 out of his last 5 fights. He was beaten by Adam Kownacki by a 10 round unanimous decision in September 2018.

In the third fight on the pay-per-view portion of tonight’s Wilder vs. Fury 2 card, WBO super bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarrete defends against #5 WBO Jeo Tupas Santisima. Navarrete, 25, is promoted by Top Rank Boxing and has dreams of becoming a global superstar.

Live undercard Wilder-Fury 2 results here:

Isaac Lowe decisions Alberto Guevara

#10 WBC featherweight contender Isaac Lowe (20-0-3, 6 KOs) defeated Alberto Guevara (27-6, 12 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision in a foul-plagued fight. The scores were 96-87, 96-87 and 95-88, all for the 26-year-old British fighter Lowe.

Referee Vic Drakulich played a big role in the fight in penalizing Guevara in round three for excessive clinching. Drakulich took a point away from Lowe in the 5th round for pushing Guevara to the canvas. Also in the 5th, Drakulich penalized Lowe for a second time for hitting Guevara with a rabbit punch.

Drakulich continued with his point deductions in round 6 in docking a point from Guevara for hitting on the break. At this point in the fight, both fighters had lost 2 points each, which evened things out.

Drakulich seemed to be running amok with the point deductions, and it took a lot of excitement away from the fight. Instead of watching the fighters, this writer was looking at the referee Drakulich, waiting for him to do some other infraction.

Sure enough, moments later, Drakulich took a point away from Lowe for pushing. The fight was so bizarre, and not just because of the two fighters. There were too many fouls called by the referee, and he seemed like he had a hair-trigger when it came to penalizing the fighters.

Surprisingly, Drakulich didn’t disqualify one of the fighters for the fouls that they were committing. The fight didn’t look like an abnormally foul-plagued fight. It was just that the referee Drakulich was choosing to take points away at every turn rather than issue warnings.

In round 8, Lowe knocked Guevara down. The rest of the way, Lowe dominated the action with his pressure.

Rolando Romero stops Arturs Ahmetovs

Undefeated lightweight prospect Rolando Romero (11-0, 10 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Arturs Ahmetovs (5-1, 2 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout. Romero dropped Ahmetovs two times in round 2.

The referee Robert Hoyle had to step in and halt the fight when the oneway punishment became too much. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:22 of round 2. It was a good win for the 24-year-old Romero, who showed that he’s ready to start taking on better opposition.

Gabriel Flores Jr. decisions Matt Conway

Unbeaten 19-year-old lightweight prospect Gabriel Flores Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs) defeated Matt Conway (17-2, 6 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision. The scores were 80-71, 80-71, and 79-72. Flores dropped Conway in the 1st round with a big right-hand shot. Flores was able to do whatever he wanted to in this mismatch. Conway had heart, but not the talent to effectively compete with Flores Jr.

Vito Mielnicki Jr. defeats Corey Champion 

Unbeaten welterweight prospect Vito Mielnicki Jr. (5-0, 3 KOs) dominated Corey Champion (1-3, 1 KOs) in defeating him by a four-round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 40-35, 40-35, and 40-34. Boxing News 24 had the 17-year-old Vito Mielnicki Jr. by the score 40-34.

In the first round, Mielnicki Jr. flattened Champion with a big right hand. From there, Mielnicki Jr. continued to dominate Champion with his beautiful combination punching. He was doing anything he wanted to do against this guy. It was a one-sided learning fight for Mielnicki Jr.

Petros Ananyan decisions Subriel Matias

In an upset victory, Petros Ananyan (15-2-2, 7 KOs) came on strong in the second half of the contest to defeat the highly ranked #2 IBF, #3 WBC light welterweight contender Subriel Matias (15-1, 15 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 96-93, 95-94, and 95-94. Boxing News 24 scored it for Ananyan 95-94.

The hard-hitting Matias got the better of the action in the first half of the contest. He nailed Ananyan with some terrific shots and had him under pressure at all times.

The tough 31-year-old Armenian Ananyan suffered a cut in round 4, and he was nailed with some big shots from Matias. At that point in the contest, it looked for sure like the 27-year-old Puerto Rican Matias was just going to steamroll over Ananyan. Near the end of the round, Matias landed some tremendous shots, but Ananyan took them well.

Ananyan wasn’t going to give up in the 5th, as he continued to take punishment from Matias. Instead of backing off, Ananyan was pressuring Matias, and forcing him to work harder than he wanted to.

Ananyan continued to pressure Matias in the 6th round, and he took some major shots from the Puerto Rican fighter. Things looked bleak for Ananyan despite his willingness to apply nonstop pressure. He was getting hit too much by Matias, and his face was bloodied from the heavy shots he was getting hit with.

Matias hurt in the 7th by Ananyan

In the 7th, Matias continued to land unabated. Things suddenly turned around late in the round, as Ananyan hurt Matias ith a big right hand that put him down. Matias looked both hurt and tired as the round ended. He looked like he had nothing left in the tank.

At the start of round 8, Ananyan came charging out of the blocks and really putting it on the exhausted Matias. Ananyan had Matias reeling the entire round, and taking a lot of punishment.

It was clear at the end of the round that Matias was too gassed out to get his second wind at that point in the fight. He’d ready the point of no return. The best that Matias could do was to try and survive, and not get knocked out. It was pure survival mode for Matias from the 8th round on.

In the 9th and 10th, Ananyan was backing Matias up, and hitting him with big shots. Matias still seemed to have power on his shots, but he wasn’t throwing enough. He was just too tired to keep fighting as hard as he needed to.

Javier Molina edges Amir Imam

Light welterweight Javier Molina (22-2, 9 KOs) picked up his fifth consecutive victory in defeating Amir Imam (22-3, 19 KOs) by an 8 round unanimous decision. The scores were 79-73, 78-74, and 78-74. Boxing News 24 had Molina, 30, winning by a 79-73 score.

The rounds were close in the first half of the contest with both highly skilled fighters boxing well. Molina, a 2008 U.S Olympian, started to take over the fight when he began to direct some of his hard shots to the body of Imam. Both guys landed well in rounds 7 and 8, but Molina got the better of it.

Molina hasn’t lost a fight in four years since his 10 round decision loss to Jamal James in 2016. Earlier in Molina’s career, he was beaten by Artemio Reyes in 2011. The loss for Imam was his second in his last three fights. He was beaten by Jose Ramirez by a 12 round decision in 2018.

Sebastian Fundora decisions Daniel Lewis

Junior middleweight Sebastian ‘Towering Inferno’ Fundora (14-0-1, 9 KOs) kept his unbeaten record intact with an unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision over Daniel Lewis (6-1, 4 KOs). The scores were 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93.  The 6’5 1/2″ Fundora failed to use his huge height and reach advantage over the 2016 Olympian Lewis the way he should have.

Fundora tried to bang the 26-year-old Lewis out, but he didn’t possess the power or the talent to get the job done. Although Fundora did land some nice shots, he lacked the power to get Lewis out of there.

Lewis fought smart in taking the fight in close and nailing Fundora with punches. On the inside, Fundora’s power’s power wasn’t impressive. He couldn’t get the leverage on his shots the way he needed to.

In the second half of the fight, Lewis constantly pressured the stork-like Fundora and battered him on the inside. Like in Fundora’s last fight against Jamontay Clark, he was worked on the inside, and unable to deal with the skills of his opponents.

Fundora’s nose was bleeding from the shots from Lewis and looked miserable in the 9th and 10th rounds.

Late in the fight, Fundora was bleeding from his nose as Lewis kept coming. In the tenth and final round, Lewis pressed as Fundora jabbed and kept his distance to close.

Emanuel Navarrete stops Jeo Santisima

WBO super-bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarrete, (31-1, 27 KOs) had a tough time tonight in having to work harder than expected in stopping #5 WBO challenger Jeo Santisima (19-3, 16 KOs) by an 11th round knockout in the pay-per-view portion of the Wilder-Fury 2 card. The fight was stopped by referee Russell Mora at 2:20 of round 11.

Making a voluntary defense, the 25-year-old Navarrete waited until the 10th round to start pressing hard against the 23-year-old Filipino fighter Santisima. Once Navarrete started to nail Santisima at will with shots, it was only a matter of time before the fight was stopped. Santisima wasn’t going to give up easily and roll over on Navarrete.

Just by sticking around, and occasionally landing big shots, Santisima made this easily the toughest fight for Navarrete since his rematch with Isaac Dogboe last May. Where Santisima made a mistake is failing to go to the body more. He was targeting Navarrete’s head too much, and this made it easier for the Mexican fighter to dodge those shots. When Santisima did target the body of Navarrete, he appeared to hurt him.

Santisima had his best round of the fight in the 4th round when he landed some big shots on Navarrete. It was a back and forth round, but Santisima got the better of the action.

Santisima was still strong in the 5th

In the 5th, Santisima continued to land big shots to the head and body of Navarrete. The Mexican fighter fired back his own big shots and took control of the round late. Nevertheless, Santisima didn’t stop coming forward, and he made Navarrete work a lot harder than he wanted to in the 6th.

In the 7th, Navarrete focused more on his defense as he boxed Santisima, and he did a good job.

Navarrete began to wear Santisima down from the 8th round, as he was pushing forward and throwing a lot of punches. The Filipino fighter showed courage, but he couldn’t keep up with the mad pace that Navarrete was setting. Moreover, the power on Navarrete’s shots wore Santisima down like a battery, and he began to throw fewer shots from that point on.

You can make a strong argument that the Navarrete vs. Santisima fight should have been the co-feature bout rather than the Charles Martin vs. Gerald Washington bout, which isn’t a great match-up.

Charles Martin destroys Gerald Washington

Former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (28-2-1, 24 KOs) made easy work of former world title challenger Gerald Washington (20-4-1, 14 KOs) in stopping him in the 6th round in an International Boxing Federation title eliminator. The time of the stoppage was at 1:57 of round six.

In the 6th, the southpaw Martin, 33, dropped Washington with a left hand to the head. The fight was then stopped when the groggy 37-year-old Washington got back to his feet.

The fight was initially competitive in round 1, as both of these giant heavyweights landed some nice shots.

In the third, Martin landed a nice body shot down the pipe on Washington as he plodded forward. The action was mostly slow, and neither of them appeared to want to take risks.

In the 4th and 5th, Martin focused on jabbing Washington and pawing with his left hands. Later in the round, Martin landed a nice left to the head of Washington that got his attention. Martin continued to land his left hand at will in the closing moments of round 5.

In the 6th, Martin poleaxed the 37-year-old Washington with a big left to the head to put him down. The fight was then subsequently halted.

The victory for Martin makes him the secondary IBF mandatory to champion Anthony Joshua, which means he’ll be challenging for the title in 2021. If Joshua is still the IBF champion by then, this would be a rematch of the Joshua-Martin fight from 2016. Joshua stopped Martin in the 2nd round back then to take his IBF heavyweight title from him.