MARTIN SAMUEL’S VERDICT
Tyson FURy lay on his back. His eyes staring at the ceiling, the bright lights blinding, as if on an operating table. out of his vision, Deontay Wilder drew a hand across his throat. It was over. The fight was done. He had hit plenty of opponents like that before. He knew how it ended. It ended here.
yet, somehow, there was a postscript. somehow, Fury rose. Like a horror film monster, like that which cannot be killed, up he got, on he marched, to the bitter end.
‘It was like the f****** Undertaker,’ exclaimed promoter Lou DiBella. ‘It was like WWE. I tell you, very few boxers have ever popped back from one like that. I was running towards the ring, shelly Finkel was already up the stairs. Fury’s eyes rolled in his head. And the next thing, he’s up. I’m thinking, “Holy s***”.’
There were two minutes left and Fury made it through, even rallied briefly, landed a few of his own. He had done his job, too. He had fought more smartly, more bravely, better than anyone can possibly have imagined.
He fought technically and tactically, but was never boring. He played the showman, but not the clown or the stooge. He grimaced, and gurned, he dropped his hands, held them outstretched, placed them behind his back. He took the mick, but always with purpose. He angered Wilder, let him punch himself dry.
By the champion’s own admission, he just wanted Fury gone and in his emotional state, lost sight of his own game plan. Fury taunted, trapped and tricked him. Drew him to miss, so, so many times. Meaning when the moment came for the coup de grace to be administered, Wilder simply didn’t have it in him. He wasn’t laser focused, as he needed to be. He couldn’t hit the target, and he lacked the power to put Fury down a third time. so he didn’t win.
He didn’t lose either, this being the most frustrating of split decisions: a draw. one judge for Fury, one for Wilder, one level. so it’s a rematch.
Anthony Joshua finds himself shut out of heavyweight boxing’s best show, for now at least. And credit Fury for that, too. He took on Wilder, the most explosive puncher in the division, at a time when he appeared woefully under-prepared and out of condition. It was an extraordinarily courageous gamble that has paid off handsomely.
‘Joshua did not want this fight,’ Fury sneered, ‘and he did not want it because Wilder is one of the fiercest punchers in heavyweight history. I know that because I felt it tonight. AJ didn’t want no part of that right hand, let me tell you. He can’t move like me. He would have been nailed. He couldn’t have got out of the way of Wilder. no way.’
DiBella concurred. ‘ Both guys tonight would beat that third guy,’ he insisted. ‘This energises heavyweight boxing hugely. The top of the division is super high quality for the first time in a long, long time. We all say, “so goes the heavyweight division so goes boxing” — so this this has been a great night for boxing. A 6ft 9in man who can box like that? Come on, it’s unbelievable. That guy is a master boxer.’
Indeed Fury is. His performance against Wladimir Klitschko earned due praise but this was on another level: an intelligent, agile performance against a fighter in his prime.
Given the condition of the two men, it really came as no surprise that the majority of Wilder’s best rounds were late. By then, Fury, three stone heavier and his skin wobbling as he danced around the ring, must have been running on fumes. yet his game smarts shone through, always.
He talked of having surprises for Wilder, and was nothing if not wise. He didn’t fight negatively as he did
against Klitschko but everything he did was shot through with motive, even when he appeared to be playing the fool.
At times, it looked as if Fury was channelling Buster Bloodvessel from Bad Manners — not that the champion would have recognised a homage to Britain’s 1980s ska revival — sticking his tongue out from beneath his shaven crown and waggling it, mockingly, his quivering frame poking its own fun, juxtaposed with Wilder’s athletic tone. Look at me, he seemed to be saying. Look at this. And you can’t get near me, Deontay. Can’t lay a glove on me, can you?
Even when Wilder did, in the ninth and the final round, Fury’s resilience was quite remarkable. He can take a punch, and this night proved it. He can avoid one, too. Big swing, big miss, big swing, big miss. The judge that scored the fight by four points to Wilder must have been impressed by his aggression, because his accuracy was woeful.
So, was it a travesty, as many believe? Was Fury robbed? No. The two knockdown, 10-8 rounds, just about saved Wilder and the draw was a fair result. Even their grievances balanced out. Fury thought he won the fight, Wilder countered that referee Jack Reiss was slow to make the 10 count in the 12th, when Fury looked out. ‘I don’t know how he got up,’ Wilder said. ‘I don’t know why they didn’t start the count earlier. I really thought I had him out of there. I got heavy hands and I hit hard. I saw his eyes roll back in his head, I saw Jack on the ground checking him, and I thought, “It’s o-ver”. Only God knows how he got back up. Fury was laid out, but they hesitated.’
Even Fury admitted he didn’t know what had happened and that he was slipping and sliding, when he finally found his feet again. He played it smart all the way to his exit from the arena, though. His immediate post-fight complaints were philosophical, not bitter, and ensured peace reigned at the Staples Center, despite a large, loud and boisterous travelling contingent. Had Fury turned nasty in the aftermath, they might have, too.
Instead he was note perfect, even concluding his press conference with an impromptu a capella take on American Pie, inviting reticent writers to join in. It was an excellent fight — ‘I had a great dance partner,’ as Fury put it — and a good humoured, respectful display.
It assures they will dance again, when Fury will be fitter and better prepared, providied he maintains his regime. At which point, many think he has the edge.
Finkel, co-promoter, disagreed. ‘The next time Wilder fights Fury he will be better,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if Fury can be better. I give him all the credit in the world for getting up. It would have been easy not to. So I think while you saw the best of Fury, you did not see the best of Wilder.’
He may have a point, although Fury has now risen to the occasion and to the challenge of supposedly superior opponents in two massive title fights. Most importantly, whatever version of Fury is on display, America will want to see him again, as will his home crowd.
Suddenly, it is not just Joshua who is the stadium draw. Whatever one thinks of the result, Fury very much got what he deserved.