Tyson Fury targeting Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua in 2019

By Scott Gilfoid

Boxingnews24.com

Having failed at defeating WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder last month in fight that ended in controversy, Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) plans on fighting ‘The Bronze Bomber’ in a rematch, and then, if successful, face IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) in a unification match in 2019, according to promoter Frank Warren.

What we don’t know is how the twelfth round knockdown of the previous Wilder-Fury fight will effect Fury in the rematch. Being dropped in that way where Fury appeared to be unconscious might make him susceptible to getting dropped easier in the rematch. It can’t be viewed as a good thing that Fury was knocked down in that fashion last time.

Did the 12th round knockdown make Fury more susceptible to Wilder’s sledgehammer blows for the rematch? We’ll have to see. It’s not a badge of honor to be dropped by that, and getting up from it. You’ve got the potential of Wilder doing a quick job on Fury in the rematch if his punch resistance has disappeared on him. The way that Wilder tagged Fury with the right-left combination in the twelfth round, it’s easy to picture Deontay doing that to Tyson in every round of the fight in the rematch. How many knockdowns of that kind can Fury withstand before the referee does the sensible thing and stops it?

Given how how the Wilder-Fury fight ended on December 1 with the judges scoring it a 12 round split draw, it’s mighty ambitious.

There’s a lot of unanswered questions about what Fury is capable of doing against Wilder in a rematch or against some of the other top heavyweights. The way that the Wilder-Fury fight ended, one got the sense that Fury got lucky, and that he won’t have the same luck in the rematch. Wilder now knows how to knockout Fury, and he’ll be sure to take advantage of that immediately in the rematch.

Wilder won’t wait until the championship rounds to start knocking Fury around the ring like a rag-doll. He’ll do it straightaway, and he won’t have to worry running out of rounds like he did last time. Further, it’ll be a different referee working the Wilder vs. Fury 2 contest than in the first fight. This means that if Wilder knocks Fury unconscious, the referee won’t likely start giving a count. The referee that worked the previous Wilder vs. Fury fight took an old school approach by giving a count to a guy looked like badly hurt. Most referee likely wouldn’t have shown the same kind of patience. As such, the fight will be waived off if Fury winds up in a similar state in the rematch.

“He is top of the charts again now and we are working on his rematch with Wilder currently,” Warren said in his column at Frankwarren.com.

Fury, 30, is definitely one of the top fighters in the heavyweight division, but he didn’t finish strong enough against Wilder for him to be considered as having a great shot at beating him in the rematch. Getting dropped twice and being saved from being knocked out by a referee that was willing to give a count to a guy that looked gone, isn’t the way you want to end a fight. To say that Fury fell apart in the last part of his fight with Wilder is putting it lightly. Fury resembled an old car falling apart piece by piece as it labors up the steep Grapevine on the way to Los Angeles, California.

“After [Wilder] he will want Anthony Joshua, and there is no reason from our side why this shouldn’t become a reality,” Warren said. “It is a fight the British public will demand to see before too long.”

The odds of Fury beating Wilder, given the way things were last time, are slim. Fury looked like he was just spoiling the last time around, and he didn’t look like the winner at the end of the fight. Fury looked like a guy that lucked out by having a referee that was giving him a count when he appeared to be knocked cold. Why did the referee give a count to Fury rather than stopping it? It’s hard to know. Will a similar referee be assigned to the Wilder vs. Fury rematch? We’ll have to see. It’s unlikely though. It’s too risky for referees to give counts to fighters that appear to be knocked out the way Fury looked to be in the 12th round.

Wilder has to be viewed as the favorite to beat Fury in the rematch. Looking past Wilder is a mistake. It’s not realistic for Fury to be seen getting passed Wilder in the second fight. The goal should be to somehow go the distance with Wilder, and hope that the judges are generous with the scoring for Tyson. If Fury can go the distance with Wilder a second time, he still will have a hard time winning the fight. The judges will have to decide on scoring rounds where both guys are landing the same amount of shots. In situation like that, the judges normally score the rounds to the guy that lands the harder blows, which in this case would be Wilder by far. If the judges go against their normal way of scoring fights by giving the weaker punching Fury the majority of the rounds, it’s going to look like they robbed Wilder if both guys land the same amount of shots like last time.

Barring a knockout in the rematch, Fury’s best chance of winning the Wilder rematch is if the bout is staged in the UK, and if it goes the 12 round distance. If Fury’s promoter can negotiate the rematch to take place in Fury’s hometown of Manchester, UK, he could potentially win a controversial decision if he doesn’t get knocked around the ring like he did the last time he fought Deontay. It’s going to look bad though if the judges give Fury the win despite him getting knocked down two to four times. It could end up looking like Wilder never had a chance of winning if he drops Fury a half dozen times, and still ends up losing by a decision. Hopefully wherever the fight is staged, you get quality judges and a good referee that officiates the fight in a logical manner.

Fury was knocked down twice by Wilder in rounds nine and twelve, and very lucky that referee Jack Reiss didn’t pull the plug on the fight after the second knockdown. It was one of those situations where Fury was fortunate to have a referee that believes in giving a count for a fighter that appears to be knocked unconscious. Since Fury didn’t stir for several seconds or more, the referee could have stopped it straightaway after he was knocked down in the 12th by Wilder. The judges scores the fight 115-111 for Wilder, 114-112 for Fury and 114-114 for Fury.