Highly Anticipated Bout Ends With Questions Needing To Be Answered
Plenty of fans leaving the sold out Staples Center on Saturday night will feel like they got their money’s worth. The conclusion, however, at the end of the heavyweight showdown between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury will leave a lot left to be desired.
Deontay Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) and Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) fought to a split-decision draw on Saturday night as Wilder retained his WBC heavyweight title.
Alejandro Rochin scored the fight 115-111 for Deontay Wilder. Robert Tapper scores the fight 114-112 for Tyson Fury, while British Judge Phil Edwards would score the fight 113-113, even a draw.
It was a fight that saw Tyson Fury — who held a rare two-inch height advantage over the six-foot-seven Wilder — mostly outclass and outbox the heavy hitting Wilder. Fury showboated throughout, putting his arms behind his back, yelling at Wilder and poking his chin out as a show that Wilder couldn’t hit him.
For a long while, Wilder couldn’t, swinging at air when trying to collect with a left hook or a straight right-hand.
That all changed in the ninth round when Wilder used a right cross over the temple of Fury to knock him down, bringing the crowd to its feet.
Fury recovered in the round, once again taunting his opponent. After cruising to easy rounds in the next two rounds, adversity would hit the Englishman again — and hard.
Following a straight right-hand shot landing, Deontay Wilder would use a thudding left hook to drop Tyson Fury to the canvas in a knockdown that appeared to mark the end of the fight and give Wilder a improbable and stunning victory.
Fury barely beat the count, shocking a confident and expressive Wilder, who after scoring the game-changing knockdown, appeared as if he thought he had collected his 40th career knockout.
The two fighters battled down the stretch, with Fury weathering the onslaught of “The Bronze Bomber”, finishing the fight with the edge.
Wilder and Fury promised fireworks in the lead up to this fight, and neither disappointed on that front.
Unfortunately, this fight will forever be clouded by what I felt was a miserable decision by Mexico’s Alejandro Rochin, who’s 115-111 Decision was both abominable and debilitating for me to stomach.
I had the fight scored 115-111 in favor of Fury, with Fury taking nine rounds and Wilder winning rounds five, nine and 12.
Disagree if you will, decisions such as the one we saw in an entertaining and memorable heavyweight title bout tarnish and ruin the sport’s credibility when a high-profiled fight of this magnitude ends in controversy.
Who do you believe won the fight? Leave your comments below!