I was told this was a big-deal fight at work and later on
sports talk radio. I wouldn’t know. I have no clue other than pretty much every
other “big fight” has been a big disappointment. From the radio this morning, I heard that
both fighters came in “heavy” for this heavyweight fight. What a surprise. In person, Deontay Wilder was more muscular and looked in better shape. Tyson Fury
was taller and fatter.
Fury brought out on a throne to Patsy Clines’ Crazy.
This would prove prophetic.
(Apparently, he had actually spent some time in an insane asylum.) Wilder had a live rapper/singer and came out
in a sparkling black armored Groot costume.
Oh wait, that’s actually a crown and his eyes lit up red on his
mask. It was an easy enough mistake to
make. The Brit, Fury, seemed to be the crowd
favorite in Vegas for some reason.
Here’s my highly uninformed fight scorecard. For this fight, I don’t think anybody had a
hard time scoring it. I was watching
this on TV Azteca in Spanish. I basically
missed all of the details because of that.
Round 1: Fury unleashed a barrage. Wilder went into a shell and only got off a few wild swings. Fury took this round.
Round 2: Wilder took a shot to the jaw
and momentarily staggered. He took some wild
swings at Fury’s head then wrapped up.
Fury put Wilder in a headlock after making a good headshot on him. (About 10,000 more headlocks and wraps would
happen in the match.) Wilder drove Fury backward
with a savage exchange. Wilder wrapped up
again. Fury drove him into a post with a
wrap as bell rang. Both fighters were
still swinging briefly after the bell.
Fury.
Round 3: Fury got in another headshot
and a headlock. Wilder wrapped. Both were dancing energetically at first, but
then collapsed on each in exhaustion. This
happened a whole bunch as the fight went on.
Both guys were leaning on each other so much, the ref had trouble
breaking them up. Wilder went down on a wild
swing after a hit to his jaw. The ref
gave him an eight-count. He went down
again, but was saved by the bell. Fury
took the round. Wilder lost a point, but
I didn’t see the ref motion for it or what happened. (Yes, I was watching.)
Round 4: This time I saw the ref
motion for a point on Wilder, but apparently that was a warning. (This
is definitely a place I missed out not getting this in English.) Wilder backpedaled on a hit and fell backward
on the canvas. Ref kept the fight going
and kept having to break them up. They
were hugging like a slow dance at the prom.
Fury.
Round 5: Fury unleashed a massive
combo that sent Wilder into the ropes. A
left dropped Wilder, but it seemed more like exhaustion than the hit itself. Wilder backed up into the ref trying to get
away. Wilder seemed punch drunk. Fury, I think, got a warning from the ref on
a hit. “Don’t knock him out too
soon. We need a couple more
rounds.” Fury was raining blows at the
bell. Fury.
Round 6: There was a huge exchange with
both fighters buried into each other jabbing.
Wilder took a left and seemed dazed.
Fury then wrapped Wilder into the ropes and licked his neck. I can’t believe I just wrote that. I didn’t need to see that. Fury took the round in very poor taste. (He had to do something to make the fight
memorable.)
Round 7: Wilder was dancing backward
and cringing with Fury’s advances. (This
is starting to sound sexual.) Fury’s left
jabs were taking a toll. Fury unloaded
on Wilder and put him into a post.
Wilder didn’t seem to be reacting at that point. The ref finally stopped the fight. Fury in 7 by TKO.
What I did not realize at the time was that Wilder’s
corner had thrown in the towel and stopped the fight. I found this out a couple of days later on
sports talk radio, and this was confirmed by a friend at work. The TV coverage didn’t show the actual towel
being thrown. The commentators mentioned
it, but in Spanish, so I didn’t pick up on that. The ref had apparently shown that he was
going to let the fight keep going until Wilder dropped, though he could have
stopped it much earlier. When his
trainer figured that out and saw Wilder’s condition in the seventh, he couldn’t
responsibly let the fight continue.
I also found out later that Wilder was bleeding out of his
ears. He had popped an eardrum when he
went down in the third. Wilder lost his
equilibrium for the rest of the fight.
It was amazing he could stand up, much less fight. Another co-worker said he wished he’d taken
my advice and just gotten an antenna, rather than buying the fight. Still, he had friends over and had a good
time.
Wilder seemed briefly upset afterward, but not too much. A couple of days later, he blamed the weight
of his entrance costume. Fine. The crowd seemed okay with the decision and
the winner. Wilder might have been able
to stand up longer, but he wasn’t going to win.
As much as a wipeout as this fight was, it was a fight. The combatants were not having a “technical”
fight or carefully executing a thoughtful strategy; they were wailing on each
other. At least it was over before it
got dragged out further. Okay, I
actually sort of enjoyed this “Big fight.”
I’ll give the rematch a chance.
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