[adzii_nufc]

Summary:

Deontay Wilder can't box. I've slated him in numerous threads. The guy is just an awful boxer with a freakish right hand knockout blow. It was never going to last, he'd held a World title hostage for 5 years by cherry picking. He cherry picked Fury as a big name because he was on a comeback and out of shape but as mentioned earlier in the thread, Fury had gained weight but was arguably much fitter this time around.

Fury and power? Not so much, the sheer amount of blows landed really left Wilder in a state, again see earlier posts of Joshua not actually being a knockout puncher but rather a cumulative power puncher. That's not Fury but it's similar. Fury's punches did some devastating cumulative damage. Particularly the shot just on the ear that burst his eardrum and actually ended the fight right there. Wilder never recovered, it was near impossible to recover, it really destroys your balance. The ref and the corner gave him the benefit of the doubt to let it go on but everything after that was just lopsided punishment so the fairest way is to take apart what Fury did right and what Wilder did wrong up until that point.

The background: Fury vs Wilder I, Fury is ready but he's nowhere near 100% he's still relatively out of shape and still managed to elude Wilder for 10 rounds. However he plays into Wilders strengths in this fight and never touches up on his weaknesses until very late in the fight. Those being Wilder can't box going backwards, he panics and hasn't got the skill or IQ to navigate people charging him down. Fury however played the first 10 rounds on the back foot himself countering and jabbing away, winning or losing rounds by one or two punches either side of the scorecard. This doesn't phase Wilder because he's just trying to fight at distance with a clocked back right hand which he lands later in the fight twice when Fury inexplicably goes for a bob and weave motion rather than just backing off with your gloves up. It ends in a draw. Correct or not is opinion. With the punch stats and noting the judges didn't have them you really could score a draw in there.

Fury does his homework. He notices that Wilder panics every time someone threatens to put him on the back foot. Wilder is a horrible combination puncher and has next to no defence, fighting inside against guys of any size just isn't an option for him. Going backwards with poor head movement and fairly poor defence is also not an option. Wilder can't land his power punch consistently going backwards. Wilder doesn't do his homework. He expects Fury to box exactly the same way in a rematch. Bare in mind the above and that Fury's also had two tuneups and a chance to get into proper shape.

Fury vs Wilder II

Wilders gameplan hasn't changed. Fury charges straight to the middle and right off the bat he's got Wilder going backwards, everything has changed, Wilder is hesitant straight off the mark, he's desperately trying to paw Fury off with jabs and they're having slight success but he obviously wants to slow it down and get onto Fury doing the backwards fighting. During the second round, Fury starts letting more than just jabs go and Wilder is visibly rattled and has absolutely no idea what to do. His corner have absolutely no idea what to do because they've drilled a one dimensional fighter, there isn't a plan B or C. The third comes and the inevitable is coming, Wilders getting trapped in corners and taking punishment, it's going to start taking its toll. He's landed a few hard shots of his own but as detailed above, Fury was always moving away from them rather than into them before getting back on the offensive. Wilder couldn't launch any sort of sustained attack because again he just didn't have the answers for fighting off the back foot. Fury absolutely planned this months in advance and executed it perfectly. Ben Davison wasn't swapped out because Fury wanted to gain power, they were just led to believe that. He was swapped out to train intensively on an attacking approach rather than the defensive approach he adopts under Ben. In the end it wasn't even a gamble as made out, they 100% knew if they got Wilder on the back foot he'd panic. The barrage of assault continues and he's getting systematically beaten up. He lands a nasty shot around the ear and Wilder goes down. Believe me, nobody stays standing after those. The problem is, similar to Ruiz vs Joshua I it's a shot you simply don't recover from. The fight is over from that point. The rest is Wilder being absolutely beat up. His corner should've pulled him out way sooner.

Can argue all night about how untalented Wilder is or whether Fury has the best boxing skill. None of those mattered. What actually mattered was the tactical masterclass from Fury. A game plan that was drilled and pulled off superbly. I had it 50/50, the bookies had it evens. Vegas had it to Wilder but that's Vegas. Fury had already been in the ring with him and then had an entire year to take that in and study the guy further. I'll never doubt that again. Fury showed he has elite level boxing IQ. He outboxed Wlad with a combination of both in a bit of a drab fight but based on this he'd probably have dismantled Wlad in a rematch.