Let me start by saying that this fight had the ghosts of the heavyweight divisions all time greats on the edge of their phantom couches. It was an amazing fight. There were no losers, at least from the fan perspective. I paid $70 for this fight and I feel like I ripped them off. It was an all time great fight between a boxer and puncher with the outcome of the fight in question until Fury started to bounce on his toes in the 9th round and then I got that feeling that it was over for Wilder. 277 pounds and bouncing on his toes to set up his rhythm, after taking those heavy shots that would short circuit a city, from Wilder!!! one of the heaviest punchers to ever be in the division. It must have disheartened Wilder, who, for his part, left everything in the ring to show that he was there for real and not to just pick up a paycheck. These two combatants have put the heavyweight division on the map and now the lower weights are going to have to play catch up to match the action in this fight.

Wilder, a true warrior, just not a pure boxer, who hits like he has titanium in his hands, put an effort and grit that you rarely see today. The first round was a no doubter as you can hear the thud of his punches on Fury’s body. And you could tell by Fury’s expression, one of the few times his poker face actually failed him, that those shots shocked him by the pure ferociousness and force that landed on his midsection. Lucky for Fury, he had a lot of shock absorber quality to that midsection, or it might have done some lasting affects. Fat absorbs punishment better than muscle, that’s why women fall on their derriere and guys fall on their heads to absorb punishment. If Wilder had aimed those thuds to the arms and shoulders, he would have much better success. That’s why you couldn’t knock out Tony Tubbs with a body shot, shock absorption. Wilder’s one weakness was that he actually thought that there was no way Fury could beat him, over confidence, which led to his doom. Wilder’s best fight was against Stiverne, in their first fight, where Wilder was very aware of Stiverne’s force and boxed beautifully by mixing agility, speed and force. If he had done that here, I think t would have been a very different fight. Mix the force with long jabs and movement and I believe he could have pulled it off but he chose to load up early and often which caused him spend most of his energy early and gave Fury the opportunity he needed to win.

Fury, who started out supremely over confident, lost that over, not the confidence, in the first round after feeling those jack hammer right hands of Wilder’s. It made Fury do what Wilder should have done, be cautiously aggressive. He mixed in beautiful head movement with quick jabs and good feints to lure in Wilder. It honed in his senses and timing because he did not want to taste that power up top. And when he did get a little too brave, Wilder deposited him on his fat head, shock absorption. He wouldn’t make that mistake after that round though and he showed what a true boxer puncher can do to a forceful puncher and that’s outlast him, pick him apart with timing, and set him up for the finish, which is exactly what he did. Overall, a great fight from a great boxer and a great puncher. But in the end, the sport is called boxing, not let’s see who can punch harder and that is why Fury had his hand raised while Wilder had his head dropped, again, shock absorption.