Kelsey McCarson’s HITS and MISSES (Wilder vs. Fury 2 Edition)

The entire sports world seemed to stand still for the heavyweight championship rematch between WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder and lineal champ Tyson Fury over the weekend in Las Vegas. This was truly heavyweight boxing in its finest form featuring two undefeated champions competing in the biggest and best boxing event of the entire year.

Here are the biggest HITS and MISSES after Wilder vs. Fury 2.

HIT: Tyson Fury’s Career-Defining Victory

Fury’s dominating performance against Wilder on Saturday night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas was one of the better performances by a fighter in recent big-fight history. It wasn’t just that Fury nabbed the important win along with all the hardware and accolades that come with it. It was that he completely destroyed arguably the most feared puncher in modern boxing history. Fury’s 7th round stoppage of Wilder will long be remembered as the 30-year-old’s career-defining performance. Nobody had ever manhandled Wilder that way before, and the idea that Wilder vs. Fury 2 would go down as it did would have seemed wildly outrageous to anyone outside of Fury’s team beforehand. But Fury pulled it off, and unlike Fury’s outstanding win against longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, this one was fun to watch.

MISS: Jay Deas Not Protecting His Fighter 

It’s certainly understandable why Jay Deas, Wilder’s longtime trainer who helped guide the 34-year-old heavyweight from obscurity to being a world champion, would want to give the power-punching Wilder the benefit of the doubt. After all, Wilder’s fantastic fists had gotten him out of some jams before, and the American was still trying to change things with a single punch in the face of Fury’s tremendous assault.

But Deas seems to have lost sight of the single most important thing that was happening inside the ring. Wilder wasn’t just losing the fight. He was getting completely outclassed and appeared to be finished way before Wilder’s other trainer, Mark Breland, finally asked for the fight to be stopped. Wilder looked bad. He was bleeding, stumbling around and didn’t appear to have any zip left on his punches. Luckily, Breland was there to save Wilder from further damage.

Deas brought Breland onto the team after Wilder turned pro. That was the right move. But not wanting to stop the fight when it was clear Wilder was in some real danger with no hope of winning was the wrong one.

HIT: Deontay Wilder’s Courage and Determination in Defeat

Wilder’s courage and determination in the face of such certain defeat should be noted. There have been many other big punchers in boxing history that have essentially turned out to be nothing more than big bullies once all the chips were down. But Wilder didn’t shrink in the moment. He kept fighting no matter how much bigger and better Fury was, and he showed real class after the fight by being humble in defeat.

Wilder went underappreciated for years. While it’s nice to have seen so many people jump on the bandwagon over the last two years or so, it would have been better if it had happened sooner. He’s a great American athlete who became a very good heavyweight boxer in a relatively short amount of time. Wilder will go down in history as one of the best knockout artists ever, and his WBC heavyweight title reign was certainly something very special, too.

MISS: Kenny Bayless and the 5th Round Point Deduction 

I’m usually comforted by the sight of referee Kenny Bayless in the ring on fight night, but something seemed off about how he officiated Wilder vs. Fury 2. You never want to feel as if one of the fighters in the ring has two opponents. Yet, it seemed as if Fury was being treated differently than Wilder throughout the night.

That was nowhere more apparent than when Bayless inexplicably took a point away from Fury during the 5th round for throwing a punch after being told to break. But why was that instruction being given in the first place? Fury had just corralled Wilder into the corner and appeared to be on the verge of stopping him. And imagine if the fight had been closer and come down to the judges’ scorecards?

I’m not sure what was going on during Wilder-Fury 2, but I’ve seen way better performances from Bayless than that.

HIT: Bob Arum and Al Haymon Making a Huge Fight Happen

So, it turns out Bob Arum and Al Haymon can work together. Wilder vs. Fury 2 was a fantastic night of boxing featuring two of the biggest stars in the sport. The complication of having both ESPN and Fox Sports tied to each side of the street turned out to be a huge boon to how the event could be promoted across the channels, and the usually sharp-tongued Arum had nothing but positive things to say about his PBC counterparts.

All that’s great, as is the fact that the tracks have now been laid for Arum and Haymon to make other big fights soon. A good way to keep things going would be to start getting WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford fights against the PBC’s vast cadre of top 147-pound talent. The next superfight on the horizon is Crawford vs. Errol Spence, and that should happen just as soon as the latter is fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in last year’s car wreck.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams for Top Rank

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