The fire, Fury and larceny
Yes, there was a hint of larceny about how he was denied the world title, but this titanic battle proved that Fury is...
AS Tyson Fury drowned cries that he had been robbed of the world heavyweight title by leading the massed media in a rousing rendition of American Pie, he won over his critics in droves.
He had already gained more millions of admirers by rising from what looked like the dead to avoid defeat by Deontay Wilder than he had by beating Wladimir Klitschko to win his world heavyweight titles.
Then he acquired countless more with his initially diplomatic reaction to Saturday night’s contentious draw which defused his supporters from ‘smashing the place to pieces’. Wilder claimed the recognition he has long deserved by retrieving a seemingly lost cause, thereby clinging on to to his WBC world championship.
Then he gained the respect he had craved for years in America by joining his challenger in declining to blame the deadlocked result on the officials.
May the best men draw — and do it all over again. Not only for themselves and their bank balances but for a revival of boxing which only the giants of the ring’s marquee division can fully inspire.
‘This was a great fight and greatest of all for the fans and for boxing,’ said Wilder.
The Gypsy King and the Bronze Bomber gave us the titanic battle for which prize fighting had been waiting for to rekindle the public’s love affair with the hard old game.
This was an epic to set above mere quibbles about the outcome.
Fury’s fans were not alone in believing he had won despite being flattened twice. There was a case to argue, since the majority of what went before was a masterclass given by an incredibly athletic giant with a brain as nimble as his frame and exceptional ring-craft. Wilder’s believers suspected that when Fury was poleaxed in the last he benefited from a long count, one interrupted by the American referee who saw his eyes lolling in the back of his head, kneeled to check his condition and was in the act of ending the fight when Fury suddenly lurched to his feet arguing for his right to continue. There had been talk at ringside that Mr Jack Reiss had momentarily cradled the back of Fury’s head in his hand. At the least he came very close to doing so, in what appeared to be an indication that he was calling the stoppage. Certainly, upon video review, the count exceeds 11 seconds. So there was a hint of theft on one hand and larceny on the other, lurking on a dark night in the streets of Downtown LA. To all of which Fury, who hours later was a lot harsher on the judges, said: ‘I thought I won but I won’t make any excuses about the scoring which would detract from Wilder, who is a great champion, a warrior like myself and a man I respect. And by the way I have no idea how I got up from that second knock down unless it was with help from a Holy hand.’ To which Wilder replied: ‘I thought I won but we both gave everything and I’m not making anything of the suggestions of a long count.’ Fury was also aware that the more volatile of his 8,000 fans in the Staples Center might have erupted had they seen him protesting rather than mutually embracing Wilder. He said: ‘I told my family to stay calm so it didn’t go off.’ Having pronounced ‘the old Tyson Fury dead,’ now that he has conquered his demons he is maturing well and the new Tyson Fury is revealing his many human qualities. The fighting heart has never stopped beating. It helped bring him back from 10 stones above his boxing weight yet still able to perform this brilliantly and with such astonishing resilience. That is a minor miracle in itself.
It was enough to give him a potentially winning lead in the first half of a fight in which he was so close to making boxing history and finding his own place in it as a twotime world heavyweight champion.
Yet when Wilder sent him crashing in the ninth it seemed this correspondent’s prediction of him being KO’d around that point in the proceedings while ahead on points would be fulfilled.
Fury knew the dangers. He said: ‘This man has lightning hands and dynamite in his fists.’ More credit to Fury then for becoming the only opponent Wilder has not knocked out in his career.
Well, not yet. That risk will come again if there is a rematch.
One fascination will be finding out which of them learned the most about the other from this thunderous experience.
Whoever, it is likely to be close again. The irony this time was that on a night when, curiously, there was no home-town American among the judges, the casting vote for a draw came from the only British official.
Phil Edwards’ call of 113-113 was sandwiched between a 115-111 score for Wilder and a 114-112 card in Fury’s favour.
So close was it that when I tallied up my running marks as 114-113 for Wilder I was surprised, because my gut feeling had been that Fury won. That’s boxing and that’s the way it should be when elite fighters dispute world titles. These two both called Anthony Joshua to join what Wilder describes as ‘my coming out party.’ Will he answer that challenge, sooner or later, if only for boxing’s sake?
If he does, Fury and Wilder both believe they will beat him. If he does, we will be in for even more fun.
‘Well,’ roared the Gypsy King as he entered the postfight room, ‘are you not entertained?’ We sure were. By two proper fighting men. And if indeed they were both robbed, one way or another, that would make this controversial draw the perfect result.