By Joss Gooseman: First of all, congratulations to the champ, Tyson Fury.
It was an epic fight, and both fighters fought their hearts out, so kudos to both Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
Having said that, I wrote an article a couple of days back and have written an analysis of the strategies of which both fighters could use to win the fight.
Well, I wasn’t wrong.
I will quote myself here:
• On Deontay Wilder, I stated – “Keep the fight in the center of the ring, he should stand his ground and avoid being bullied by constantly using the jab. He actually has a decent jab as he has shown in his fight with Stiverne” (end of quote)
He was having success backing Fury up when he was using his jab to the body in the early rounds, he could have mixed it up by firing to the head to keep Fury guessing and backing up. Sadly he didn’t, or wasn’t able to keep it up.
• I stated – “…in most cases, when fighters are faced with difficulties in the ring, they almost always revert back to their old innate styles…”
And this is exactly what happened to Wilder going back to his old style of fighting after the third round.
• On the added weight, I stated – “He is not known for remarkable quickness of hands but with a huge right hand, and that right hand worked well when he was fighting in his optimal weight. He already has the power, thus the added weight will not help but will actually work against him, he is sacrificing what quickness he has with the added weight, not to mention the cardio. They should have noted and learned how the first fight went, i.e., a lighter Wilder almost knocked out Fury and we have all seen how badly a heavier Wilder performed in the second fight. Deontay Wilder has small legs, and he is putting a lot of weight and strain on those legs, the consequence of which he will tire out quicker”
It blows the mind how such an obvious fact, i.e., the weight gain being detrimental to Wilder wasn’t addressed by his team. This, in fact, is the main reason for his defeat. It all pivoted and turned on this simple fact. To put it simply, he gassed out, largely due to the added weight, which was not only unnecessary but worked against Wilder, as we have all witnessed.
Wilder simply ran out of steam.
He may not look the part, but Fury had better physical conditioning than Wilder.
• On the game plans, I stated – “Fury has Wilder’s number. He has the blueprint now to beat Wilder a second time, and since Wilder is not a technical boxer, he will just focus on landing that right hand, one-shot, which will be his failing. Motivation is not enough, you need skillsets and game plans to go with that desire. He (Tyson Fury) used every opportunity (in the second fight) to lean on Wilder and tire him out. Thus this, and the fact that Wilder is coming in with added weight will work to his (Tyson Fury’s) advantage”
It was exactly how it played out.
Wilder should have stayed in his own range and paced himself, as he is not known to be an infighter. He should have known that phone booth fighting is not for him as he is getting bullied and leaned on by the bigger man Fury whenever he tries it.
In fact, in the sixth round, we all have seen how Wilder’s knees buckled when Fury was leaning his weight on him. Twice.
Some fans have dismissed Wilder as having a weak chin.
I beg to disagree. He actually showed he has a good chin, as does Tyson Fury.
He ate a lot of huge right hands, he was down but still managed to hurt Fury somehow.
And so does Fury who managed to shake off the effects of the huge shots he was tagged with by Wilder.
The huge difference is the physical conditioning, the stamina.
Wilder’s fatigue made worse, or maybe primarily due to the added weight was his worse enemy that night.
A statement to his fans by Wilder after the fight has been circulating in the boxing community.
“I did my best, but it wasn’t good enough. I’m not sure what happened….I knew that he didn’t come in at 277 (pounds) to be a ballet dancer. He came to lean on me and rough me up and he succeeded” – Deontay Wilder.
It is strange that Wilder was aware of this, yet they didn’t formulate a game plan to negate it.
Probably because he lacks the technical skills to do so, i.e., the way Usyik negated Joshua’s size and power, or another case in point of how Sanchez negated Ajagba’s size and power in their fight in the undercard.
In this case, being blessed with one punch knock-out power sometimes hinders the development of a boxer, for the reason that he thinks other skills are not needed or are overlooked and not highly developed due to having that punching power, that equalizer.
Deontay Wilder gained a lot of respect from boxing fans by giving his all and going out on his shield, yet, tarnished by the fact that he refused to acknowledge that the better man won that night.
In my humble opinion, if Deontay Wilder chooses to continue with his career, he has some work to do regarding his mental state on his shortcomings clouded by his ego, inflated by his punching prowess, on his footwork and lateral movements and other skills he can develop, and most of all, on his physical conditioning, i.e., one can not execute a game plan if one does not have the physical conditioning to implement it…
But of course, these are all just my opinion.
The fact remains that it was a fight of classic proportions.
And that the biggest winners are the boxing fans.