Otto Wallin thinks he has CORONAVIRUS

By Boxing News - 03/24/2020 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Otto Wallin – who built his name by giving Tyson Fury the fight of his life in 2019 – thinks he’s got the dreaded coronavirus. According to TMZ, the big 6’6″ Swedish heavyweight Wallin (20-1, 13 KOs) is in quarantine.

Wallin’s mother became sick recently after meeting with the 29-year-old Wallin, and her boyfriend is ill as well. He’s subsequently been diagnosed with coronavirus.

Wallin says he thought he was getting better from whatever illness he has when all of a sudden he lost his sense of taste and smell. Those two things are symptoms of a person with coronavirus.

Wallin NOT certain he has coronavirus

In Wallin’s case, apparently he’s still not entirely certain if he has the coronavirus. He doesn’t want to take the test, as he feels it’s better to save it for other people that are sicker than he is. Unlike some ill people, Wallin isn’t being hammered by the coronavirus.

Oftentimes, the younger people aren’t affected by the virus as older people.

“I felt a little off but that was about it. I probably would have gone about my normal life if I didn’t know that this was going on. So I’ve been quarantining since Saturday so that’s been over a week now,” said Wallin to TMZ.

“I felt like I had a fever but I didn’t. And, then like I was starting to get better, and then all of a sudden I lost my smell and taste.  It’s better to save the tests for those who really need it and take some pressure off the hospitals.”

It’s admirable that Wallin is being self-less by saving the badly needed coronavirus test kits for others. Those kits are said to be in short supply, and it’s nice to hear that Wallin is willing to go without the test.

Wallin’s defeat to Fury last September was a controversial 12 round unanimous decision loss in Las Vegas. Fury won by the scores 118-110, 117-111, 116-112, but a lot of boxing fans thought Wallin had done enough to deserve either a win or a draw.

Since his loss to Fury, Wallin has been inactive, which isn’t surprising given his illness.

It would have been a nice gesture on Fury’s part to give Wallin a rematch in Sweden in order to quiet down the controversy over their fight.

Image: Otto Wallin thinks he has CORONAVIRUS

Why wasn’t the fight stopped after Fury was cut?

Wallin did a better job against Fury than Deontay Wilder did, but he had nothing to show for it. Wallin busted up Fury’s face and had him bleeding all over the place from 2 cuts over his eyes. One question that a lot of boxing fans had afterward was ‘why didn’t the ringside doctor call a halt to the fight early on when it became apparent that Fury’s cut was a serious one?’

Ultimately, Fury ended up needing a massive 47 stitches to close the gaping cut over his right eye, and it seems strange that the fight wasn’t stopped on the advice of the ringside doctor when it occurred in round 3.

Had the fight been stopped as a result of the cut, Wallin would have been the winner. Some people asked after the fight if the contest would have been halted had Wallin been the one that was cut badly?

You hate to think that Fury was given preferential treatment by being allowed to fight with a cut that you could drive a truck through. It would have been interesting to see if Wallin would have been allowed to fight with a cut like Fury’s for 12 rounds without the fight being halted.

Fury’s cut healed nicely and he was able to defeat Deontay in their rematch last February, but he also didn’t get hit much in that fight. Wilder was too weakened from his heavy ring walk vest that he wore. Moreover, Wilder looked shaken up after getting nailed with five or six hard rabbit shots in the first five rounds. More than anything, the punches to the back of the head seemed to be Wilder’s undoing.

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