Tyson Fury Survives Near Knockout, Settles for Split Draw with Deontay Wilder
I thought he killed Fury with this pic.twitter.com/qR9m1PsXMN
— Ian Wharton (@NFLFilmStudy) December 2, 2018
In ballyhooed a matchup of two towering men for the WBC heavyweight title, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder displayed everything but settled nothing.
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Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) had tremendous difficulty in finding a rhythm and was largely relegated to throwing single punches, most of which were easily defended by Fury. But just when the fight was turning into a one-sided landslide victory in favor of Fury, Wilder turned things around in a hurry. The Alabama native crashed a right hand just above Fury’s ear in the eighth, sending him to the canvas. Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) climbed back to his feet and eventually cleared his head, but it seemed as though all momentum had shifted in Wilder’s favor.
Fury nullified his foe’s attacks in the ninth and quickly resumed complete control of the action. The Englishman was boxing the defending champ’s ears off well into the championship rounds, but with “The Bronze Bomber” desperately needing a knockout in the final stanza, he nearly got it. Wilder detonated a short right cross on Fury’s face and then followed it up with a left hook to the jaw. Fury crumbled onto his back, completely out. In an amazing turn of events, however, Fury summoned his inner Michael Myers and somehow rose to his feet at the count of nine. With two minutes remaining and out on his feet, Fury managed the unthinkable and survived the round.
With the vast majority of the fans inside Staples Center and across social media believing Fury had done more than enough to win, the fight ended without a winner. The official scores were 114-110 for Fury, a stunning 115-111 for Wilder and 113-113, resulting in a split draw, which allowed Wilder to retain his title.
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