Last Saturday night in Las Vegas, boxing fans were treated to a heavyweight championship rematch featuring undefeated WBC world champion Deontay Wilder and undefeated lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Their first bout happened on December 1, 2018. Fury employed a strategy where he was mostly using movement and trying to keep things on the outside. That strategy appeared to work for him, and he appeared to be outboxing Wilder for the majority of the rounds. But Fury suffered two knockdowns in the later portions of the fight, in the ninth round and again in the 12th. The fight resulted in a somewhat controversial draw where the official scorecards were 113-113 for Phil Edwards, Robert Tapper had it 114-112 for Fury, and Alejandro Rochin had it 115-111 for Wilder.
Wilder would go on to score a 1st round KO against Dominic Breazeale in May of last year, and he also scored a 7th round knockout in his rematch with Luis Ortiz in November of last year. Fury, meanwhile, had scored a 2nd round stoppage against Tom Schwarz last June, and he also won a workmanlike unanimous decision against Otto Wallin in September of last year. The stage was set for the mega-bout rematch showdown which happened last Saturday, February 22.
Things were different this time. Fury made drastic changes in his approach, and Wilder was unable to cope with Fury’s masterful execution of his outstanding game plan. Fury dropped Wilder late in round 3, and then he dropped him again with a beautiful body shot in round 5. Wilder was absorbing a lot of punishment, and his corner threw in the towel during the 7th round. With the victory, Tyson Fury added the WBC heavyweight championship to go along with his valid claim as lineal heavyweight champion.
This edition of Rummy’s Corner will provide a brief recap of the rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, while also exploring how this impacts both the current boxing landscape (including a potential match-up against unified WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua) as well as the implications of this victory pertaining to Tyson Fury’s historical standing. For one man’s opinion, please watch and enjoy the video!