By Scott Gilfoid: In a class move, superstar, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has taken to Instagram to show support to his beaten comrade Deonay Wilder after his 7th round technical knockout defeat last weekend to Tyson Fury in Las Vegas.
In the aftermath of the defeat, a huge portion of the boxing world has been dumping on Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs), discrediting him and making light of his accomplishments during his career.
Should Fury be given credit for his win?
You hate to take away credit from Fury for his big win, but there’s talk that Wilder had problems with his legs during the fight. Whether it was one or both legs is unclear. Then there’s the ear injury Wilder had, which is believed to have affected his equilibrium.
This is what Wilder was up against in Fury rematch:
- Ear injury
- Rabbit punches
- Leg problems
- Look tired from promoting the fight
- Inadequate rest from Luis Ortiz fight
When a fighter suffers an ear injury, they’re vulnerable, and can’t do much. That may explain why Wilder was stumbling so much. Thirdly, Fury was getting away with a lot of rabbit shots during the fight.
Rabbit punching by Fury
Gilfoid saw at least 10 rabbit punches from Wilder that had him stumbling. The knockdown in round 3 by Fury looked like a textbook version of a rabbit punch. Fury landed perfectly with a right hand to the back of Wilder’s head to send him down for the first time in the fight. Perhaps referee Kenny Bayless’s vision was blocked during that occasion. If you take away all the rabbit punches Fury landed in the fight, we might have had a different outcome.
Wilder worked hard promoting Fury rematch
All the work that Wilder put in to help market his rematch with Fury might have taken something out of him. Before the fight, Wilder worked tirelessly night and day giving interviews to the media. All the interviews that Wilder gave likely wore him down to the point where he was half stunned already from overwork even before the bell rung in round 1 last Saturday.
On top of Wilder’s busy schedule, he also was coming off of a grueling fight against Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz last November. That fight was a real war with both guys getting nailed with huge shots. Five months of rest after the Ortiz contest might not have been enough for Deontay. At 34, Wilder isn’t exactly a spring chicken, is he?
Mayweather is one of the few class acts that have chosen to stick up for Wilder and to let him know he’s still a “WINNER” in his eyes. Muhammad Al was beaten in the past by Leon Spinks and he came back to avenge the loss. If Ali can do it, the 6’7″ KO artist Deontay (42-1-1, 41 KOs) has a good shot of doing it as well.
Wilder will soon be letting Fury know whether he’ll be executing the rematch clause in the contract to put the two on a collision course for a third fight at the end of this year. Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is hoping like mad that Wilder doesn’t trigger the rematch clause, because he wants to hurry up and put AJ in with Fury.
Deontay expected to exercise the rematch clause
It’s pretty much a sure thing that Wilder will exercise his contractual rematch clause to force the trilogy match with Fury. This is something that Fury would do if he were in his situation, so you can’t expect Wilder to do anything less. If Fury is going to walk away from the rivalry with Wilder, it won’t be until he faces him a third time unless he chooses to retire.
Is Wilder being dumped on more than Joshua was?
You can argue that Anthony Joshua wasn’t dumped on near as bad after his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. last year compared to how Wilder is getting it now. The wolves have really come out to give it to Wilder after his defeat, and it’s disappointing to see. The boxing media and fans have been really letting Wilder have it royally since his loss, and it’s disappointing to see.
Joshua was given the red carpet treatment in terms of being treated gently by fans after his loss to Ruiz Jr. Instead of being trashed by fans, there were a lot of people making excuses for him to try and explain away his loss. We’re not seeing that same thing with the fans supporting Wilder and trying to figure out what went wrong. A lot of the fans are saying that Wilder was never good in the first place, and was just an overhyped fighter. He held the WBC title for five years, and yet he’s still being tagged as a hype job by some.