Saturday night’s Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder rematch was a good night for boxing once they got in the ring. It overcame the silliness on the way in.
Boxing fans tend to be traditionalists like baseball fans. I don’t know anyone who likes watching a guy dressed like King George (Fury) being carried to the ring on a thrown followed by a guy wearing a stupid imitation of a Star Wars villain costume.
That nonsense doesn’t attract one extra viewer. If anything it will turn off a casual sports fan next time out if the fight itself doesn’t deliver.
They definitely can’t use that stupid baseball bullshit of trying to attract kids to the sport. Not when you ring the first bell at 12:30 AM.
Ring walks that fire fans up are Mike Tyson walking to the ring barechested or draped in a towel. Or how about the image of Marvin Hagler with a pointed hood up on his robe bobbing and weaving on the way to a showdown with a fellow all time great?
Enough with the costumes and sombreros and ballcaps. Please!
So back to the ring action. First off, I got it completely wrong.
After picking Wilder inside the distance, I was even more sure after the big Brit weighed in at 273. But he beat the living shit out of Wilder in every which way.
Wilder showed championship heart before assistant trainer Mark Breland (former welterweight champ and likely this country’s greatest amateur) threw the towel in round 7; truth be told, they could have stopped this one after the 5th.
Even though the fight was one sided (I had it 58-53 at the halfway point which is five rounds to one with 2 points deducted from Wilder for knockdowns and 1 point deducted from Fury by the inept referee Kenny Bayless), it was nonstop drama. Fury was taking Wilder apart but The Bronze Bomber was always lurking with that big right that never came.
But what I have enjoyed most about this fight is that boxing and more specifically the Heavyweight Championship of the World has been the center of the sports world for the past week. This is what putting on a major event in February can do for a sport the media loves to shit on (often deservedly so).
So where do these giants go from here? Let’s start with Wilder since he still holds the cards.
There was a clause in the contract that the loser of this fight could demand an instant rematch. Wilder has announced his intention to do so but I question how official that really is yet.
I’m not sure if the American has fully thought things through without emotion and media pressure. So far he sounds like he’s currently in the post-loss finger-pointing stage.
He has been classy in his praise of Fury, but has blamed his performance on Breland throwing the towel; Breland seemed to be the only one in Camp Wilder who did his job. He has blamed Kenny Bayless who is and was far too quick to inject himself and break the fighters. Bayless actually helped the former WBC champ take a lesser beating and even deducted what I thought was a cheap point from Fury.
He also has blamed the dumbass 40 lb. costume he wore to the ring stating it sapped his legs. This is ridiculous on every level!
First why is a professional boxer, not to mention a grown man wearing such a thing? Second, a heavyweight champion can’t walk 100 yards with 40 lbs?
You want to tell me it became a factor in the 10th? Sounds farfetched, but MAYBE. But his legs were gone in the third.
The real reasons in my opinion were the punches he took from Fury, Fury’s 273 lb. frame leaning on him and maybe Wilder wasn’t in the best of shape. He also came in around 20 lbs. heavier.
So let’s see when the dust settles and the American heals physically and mentally if he really wants an immediate 3rd fight. From a business standpoint the fight will probably be more lucrative now than later.
But from a sport standpoint, if I were close to Wilder I would push to wait a bit. Wilder took a real beating from the inside out. Yes, the ear was bleeding but he absorbed some vicious body shots that really hurt him.
He may need to get in there with a more comfortable opponent and get his confidence back first. One thing about a dominant puncher: when the invincibility is taken away they are often never the same.
As for the WBC/Ring Magazine and lineal champion, the most important thing is to keep his head on straight. Tyson Fury’s first major success lead him down a path of obesity, addiction, depression and suicidal ideology. That was after he first won the world title from Wladimir Klitchko.
Now he is back atop the division and the entire sport. If he wants to stay there he must insulate himself from the inevitable temptations headed his way.
The most dangerous opponent right now for Tyson Fury is Tyson Fury. If Wilder exercises that rematch clause, Fury will have a huge mental advantage right now. Wilder will always be dangerous to anyone at anytime with that God-Given power, but a focused Fury is a nightmare for a self-doubting Wilder.
Personally, I would rather see Fury fight WBA, IBF and WBO king Anthony Joshua for the undisputed title in front of 100,000 in some soccer stadium in the United Kingdom. Joshua’s promoter, Ed Hearn has stated he is willing to work with Bob Arum to make the event should Wilder pass.
You can still get to a trilogy down the road if it doesn’t happen right away. The Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier trilogy happened over the course of 5 years with major fights with both against George Foreman mixed in.
The best thing for the sport right now is to settle who the true Heavyweight Champion of the World is. This has been a question casual sports fans could not answer for the last decade and a half.
Fury would be a deserved favorite over Joshua who doesn’t have Wilder’s power. However, the fellow Brit has plenty of his own and a more complete tool box than the American; his style could present difficulties for the Gypsy King.
Whatever happens, people now care about heavyweight boxing again and that is refreshing. Talk soon.
-Marksman