Tyson Fury is the king of the heavyweights, and more observations from a big night in boxing.
If their first fight was frustratingly close, the rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury was an ass-whoopin’ of the highest order.
You probably thought that meant Wilder was the one who used his vaunted power to crush Fury until he could take no more, right? Wrong. It was “The Gypsy King” who reigned supreme in front of a pro-Fury crowd in Las Vegas. “The Bronze Bomber” got bombed out of the ring by a bigger and more skilled fighter. Fury quite likely became boxing’s #1 superstar with a seventh-round stoppage that was called off by Kenny Bayless before Wilder’s corner could even stop it themselves.
Fury was magnificent. His jab was pushing Wilder back constantly, he was the one whose right hand was to be feared, he bullied Deontay in ways no one has ever bullied him before. He outboxed him, roughed him up in the clinch, barely got hit, and Deontay just never had any answers. That left eardrum got busted early (apparently before the first knockdown) and his legs were jelly. Fury gave him that big brother treatment that even those who picked Tyson probably didn’t predict would lead to a knockout.
Tonight was Tyson’s time to shine. He drew deserved ire for how awful the Wladimir Klitschko win was. His life was unraveling after drug test failures, substance abuse and mental health problems, genuinely distasteful comments, and massive weight gain. He lost that weight, he got back in the gym, worked his ass off, cleaned up his image, and has become the undisputed best heavyweight in world boxing.
(I could do without the singing, though.)
More thoughts:
- How about those ring walks? Fury was the king wearing a crown and sitting on his throne as “Crazy” by Patsy Cline played. It took about nine hours for him to get to the ring, but it thrilled a lot of his fans. Then you have Wilder uh… looking like a deleted Power Ranger but I guess that was wild, too.
- There’s a trilogy in the making if Wilder wants it. He can exercise that rematch clause and there will be a lot of hype again, but he has been outboxed for an overwhelming majority of 19 rounds of ring time by Fury. I think the dynamic is very clear at this point that if he can’t knock Fury out, he doesn’t have the depth of skill to beat him on points.
- ESPN/Top Rank had control of the broadcast production. It was pretty hard to watch. The undercard wasn’t good but man oh man why on earth did we have so many split screens of Wilder and Fury in the locker while fights were going on? And they were doing nothing of importance! Stretching, getting their hands wrapped, etc. Normal boxing stuff. Are casuals hooked on this type of presentation? I don’t ever want to see it again. That said, the commentary by Joe Tessitore, Lennox Lewis, and Andre Ward was actually quite good for the main event, so it was hardly a completely negative night.
- Charles Martin vs. Gerald Washington sucked out loud and then Martin knocked Washington out with a left hand down the middle. Fight over in round six, and now Martin has won an IBF title eliminator and the right to either lose to Anthony Joshua again or (more likely) get bypassed by Anthony Joshua for actually interesting fights. I can’t believe this was the co-main event, even by boxing PPV standards.
- Emanuel Navarrete beat up a tough but overmatched Jeo Santisima to defend his WBO junior featherweight title. Russell Mora let the 11th round go on way too long, but he did stop the fight just as Santisima’s corner was ready to call it off. Navarrete is an exciting fighter (although this wasn’t a great showcase for him) who has power and workrate that’s hard to match. Whether he’ll stay at 122 lbs or move up to 126 lbs, it’s time he get bigger and more competitive matchups. He’s fought five times in 14 months, which is good, but I can wait if it means he gets a unification bout or a contender at featherweight.
- 6’6” junior middleweight Sebastian Fundora won an unremarkable unanimous decision over fellow prospect Daniel Lewis to start the PPV broadcast. Yes, Fundora is 6’6” and competing at 154 lbs. That seems physically impossible, but he makes it possible. He also has some horrible tendencies to not fight tall, and that applies offensively and defensively. He clearly won this fight (not as widely as the scorecards reads), but he needs a jab and to stop throwing away his height advantage with his willingness to fight on the inside and crouch down.
- There were two upsets on the televised undercard. Javier Molina beat former world title challenger Amir Imam in an eight-round decision that wasn’t really memorable, while junior welterweight Subriel Matias lost a shocking decision to 18-to-1 underdog Petros Ananyan over the course of ten rounds. The turning point was a seventh round technical knockdown of Matias, who was held up by the ropes as he wobbled and stumbled across the ring. No one could’ve seen that result coming.