By Charles Brun: Deontay Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel says the count for Tyson Fury in the fourth round was a “little long” last Saturday night after the “Gypsy King’ had been dropped for the second time in the round.
Finkel’s comment about the count being “long” echoes that of many boxing fans, including Andre Ward, who noted that it seemed like a slow count from referee Russell Mora.
As such, the question remains, would WBC heavyweight champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) have been counted out had the referee given a normal count?
If so, that would mean that Wilder (42-1-2, 41 KOs) should have been credited with a knockout win in the fourth round.
This writer hates to be a conspiracy theorist, but it’s hard not to when you see what took place in the fourth round of the Fury vs. Wilder trilogy match.
The right thing for Fury to do is to give Wilder a fourth fight so that he can clear up the controversy over the knockdown. Unfortunately, the chances of Fury voluntarily agreeing to provide Wilder with another war are slim and none.
The ONLY way Wilder will get a fourth fight with Fury is if the match is ordered by the WBC.
With all the money that’s at stake in a fight between Fury and the winner of the rematch between Anthony Joshua and IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, the last thing that the World Boxing Council is doing to do is step on their toes by ordering Tyson to fight Wilder again.
Finkel says Fury’s count was a “little long”
“The count was a little long on Fury getting up…the fight was what it is,” said Wilder’s co-manager Finkel to the SunSport on Tyson’s second knockdown in the fourth round.
“Early in the fight Deontay, probably around the third round, when he got hit, he got hit by the ear, and it threw his equilibrium off. I said, ‘What happened to his legs?’ Because he trained so hard.
“He also, somewhere in the middle rounds, broke his right hand behind the third knuckle, and he has to have that fixed next week.
“He has to have surgery; the knuckle is OK; it’s the bone behind the knuckle that broke,” said Finkel about Wilder’s injuries from the fight with Fury.
That count in the fourth round looked more than a little long in the eyes of Charles Brun. I thought I was in a time machine that had brought me back to the September 22, 1927 fight between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, which has been dubbed ‘The Long Count’ fight by some.
If the referee Russell Mora had concentrated on counting after Fury hit the deck for the second time in round four, he probably would have counted him out.
Arum rates Fury-Wilder 3 above Ali-Frazier 3
“It was a real classic; people are not going to soon forget that fight,” said promoter Bob Arum to iFL TV. “It’s really the best.
“People say, ‘How could it be better than the Ali-Frazier third fight, which to me was unbelievable with it back and forth in this dark arena in the Philippines.
“I remember it and see it in front of me now when I talk to you about it. That, to my mind, was the best heavyweight championship fight I’ve ever seen, but this [Fury vs. Wilder 3] surpassed it.
“As great a fight as it [Ali vs. Frazier 3] was, and as much punishment Ali and Frazier dished out against the other, there wasn’t one knockdown.
“Here, there were five, and there’s something special in a heavyweight fight when you see knockdowns,” Arum said.
Arum changed his mind after saying he rated the Fury vs. Wilder 3 fight ahead of the Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 3 ‘Thrilla in Manila’ match on October 1, 1975, saying that he now thinks the Ali-Frazier 3 contest was more thrilling.
In Charles Brun’s eyes, the Fury vs. Wilder III fight was more electrifying in pure excitement than the Ali-Frazier III clash because both fighters hit the canvas and were severely hurt.
We didn’t see that with Ali and Frazier, as both guys stayed on their feet throwing a lot of leather.
It was a great fight, but it lacked the drama that we saw with Fury-Wilder 3, as we never knew who would win that fight. With Ali-Frazier III, you could tell early on that Ali would win because he was unloading on Frazier with nonstop punches.
Fury’s recovery ability impresses Arum
“I was sitting with my wife at the fight and Jim Dolan, who’s the chairman of Madison Square Garden, and I said to both of them, ‘Well, it’s all over, it’s an early evening, and we can go and have a great dinner,'” said Arum about his reaction to Fury dropping Wilder in round three.
“Then, of course, in the fourth round, I was absolutely shocked when he [Deontay] knocked Tyson down not once but twice. But there was something; I wasn’t that alarmed.
“I was a little chagrined with Tyson getting knocked down, and the second knockdown was towards the end of the round.
“Unlike other fighters, particularly heavyweights, they get knocked down. They get up, and they’re a bit groggy, and they look to get away and recover their senses, which is normal.
“But Tyson, when he gets knocked down, as he showed in the first fight [with Wilder in 2018], it seems like it has no effect on him going forward.
“That’s a gift that I haven’t seen before. A guy getting knocked down gets up as nothing happened. Look what happened in the 12th round in the first fight [with Wilder].
“He looks like he’s spot a** dead. Suddenly, he [Fury] gets up and not only doesn’t need to take time to recover, and he goes after the other guy [Deontay], and he’s in control of the fight by the end.
“That’s remarkable. Trust me, I’ve been in this business for 57, 58 years, and I haven’t seen anything like that. I don’t know.
“I haven’t seen it so far, but until you see another heavyweight in with Wilder, you don’t know,” Arum said when asked if there are any other heavyweights in the division that can get up after being knocked down by Wilder.
It wasn’t just the shots that Fury was knocked down by that he showed a remarkable ability to recover. He was also stunned several times in the other rounds of the fight by Wilder, and he shook the shots off and continued fighting.
In the 10th round, it looked like Wilder was going to drop Fury again, but the ‘Gypsy King’ stayed on his feet and made it through to the end.