By Jeff Aronow: Tyson Fury was surprised at learning about Deontay Wilder, saying that he still doesn’t view him as a world champion. Fury isn’t sure where Wilder is coming from in his comments about not seeing him as a world champion because he feels he beat him soundly.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) says he wants to know what crack the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) is smoking because he smashed him to bits last February in stopping him in the seventh round in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wilder’s trainer Mark Breland threw in the towel to save him in the seventh round when Fury was beating him up something fierce. At that moment in the fight, the 6’7″ Wilder could no longer defend himself, and he was bloody and beaten mess.
Unlike the first fight, which saw Wilder knock Fury down twice, the rematch last February was one-sided. From the outset, Wilder never stood a chance. It was a massacre, as the 273 pound Fury used his bulk to walk down the lighter 231-pound Wilder and pound him with shots.
Tyson Fury: What crack is Wilder smoking?
“I don’t know what crack he’s smoking, but does he think he was a champion before I beat him?” said Tyson Fury to Behind The Gloves in reacting to Deontay Wilder saying that he doesn’t view him as a world champion.
“If I’m not a world champion, then what does that make him? I think he was a champion for five years and made eleven defenses, and I smashed him to pieces basically. And I took his belt off of him, so maybe he feels a little bit rubbed. I don’t know where he’s coming from.
“It was his prestigious WBC belt, Lucille, and now I’ve got it. Maybe he doesn’t want me to be champion? It’s very unimportant what Deontay Wilder thinks because when a fighter has been smashed to pieces like he has put down three or four times and brutalized, then I’m sure they’ve got to come up with some excuses. It’s the road to excuse-city,” said Fury.
It could be that where Wilder is coming from is the uniform problem that he had in wearing a heavy 40+ pound ring outfit before their rematch. It was a huge outfit that Wilder had on, and he didn’t look right after he took it off inside the ring.
Fury’s roughhouse tactics weren’t addressedÂ
The problem that Wilder had was some of the punches that Fury landed on the back of his head. Although Fury hasn’t said anything about the rabbit punches that he landed throughout the contest, it’s there to see that he hitting Wilder with illegal shots.
In the third round, Fury hit Wilder with a clear right hand behind his head that took his equilibrium away. From that point on, Wilder was stumbling around and acting as if he was dizzy from the rabbit shot.
There’s not much Wilder can say about it, though, as the referee didn’t do anything to penalize or warn Fury for the punches to the back of the head. Had the referee said something, then maybe it would have been a different fight? We’ll never know for sure.
All we know is this referee took a hands-off approach to the shots to the back of the head that Fury was throwing. Whether a different referee would have controlled the fight, more assertively, is unknown. The only thing we can count on is that the trilogy fight won’t have the same referee that worked the second contest.
Deontay’s trainer deserves a raise – Fury
“It’s up to the corner [to stop fights],” said Fury on Wilder, not being happy with his fight being stopped against Tyson. “That’s what you pay them for basically to look out for your interest. I believe they left him in too long anyway.
“I think something severely bad would have happened to him if they left him in. He couldn’t protect himself, he didn’t win a round, and he was getting badly injured.
“There was a really bad swelling at the top of his head. [Trainer] Mark Breland, I think they need to give him a pay raise because, without Mark Breland, there wouldn’t have been a third fight. He would have been retired from boxing,” said Fury.
Breland did a good job of stopping the fight in the seventh because Wilder was getting beaten to a pulp. Moments after the fight was halted, Wilder looked furious at the match being stopped, but it was the smart thing that Breland did. Wilder’s legs were gone, and his power wasn’t sufficient for him to hurt Fury. At that point in the fight, Wilder didn’t even have a puncher’s chance at winning. The only way Wilder would have won the contest is Fury exhausted himself to the point where he collapsed on his own, which wasn’t going to happen.
