Wilder, Fury battle to a 12 round draw

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder showed a lot of determination in never giving up to rally to pull out a 12 round draw with a key knockdown in the 12th round against lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in Los Angeles, California.
Fury was on his way to winning the fight through the first eight rounds, but he suffered knockdowns in the 9th and 12th rounds that helped Wilder catch up and squeak out a draw.
Let’s make this clear. This was not a robbery tonight. Neither fighter showed that they deserved the win. Wilder didn’t do enough to deserve the win, but neither did Fury. They both had their moments, but they failed to do the right thing to impress the three judges.
Getting knocked down once in the fight wouldn’t have been bad for Fury, but when he was dropped for the second time in the fight in the 12th, it spoiled his chances of getting the decision.
The scores by the judges had it 114-110 for Fury, 115-111 for Wilder and 113-113 even. You can make a case for the fight being a draw. The disturbing thing about the scoring was the judge that scored it for Fury 114-110 only gave Wilder the 9th and 12th rounds, which the the two rounds he scored knockdowns. It’s pretty clear that Wilder more than just two rounds. The scoring by that judge was off the wall bad. The judge that scored it 113-113 (Phil Edwards from the UK), seemed to get it right. Wilder definitely won more than two rounds tonight, and scoring left a lot to be desired.
Wilder gave away a lot of rounds early on, but the way he finished strong helped him salvage the draw. To beat the champion, the challenger can’t be getting knocked down twice, especially when they’re the visiting fighter. There was no robbery in this fight. It was just the dynamics that go into a normal fight where the challenger is not supposed get knocked down twice, and they’re also not supposed to fight passively the way Fury was fighting. Fury was fighting like he was nursing a big lead from the 1st round instead of someone trying to win the fight. Fury will have learned a good lesson from this fight. If he wants to win in the future, he’s got to do more.
The draw means the giant heavyweights could do it again in early 2019 unless one of them has better to do like face IBF, WBA and WBO champion Anthony Joshua. For Wilder, this was his second consecutive thrilling match in 2018, cementing him in as the most exciting heavyweight on the planet. Wilder still hasn’t proven that he’s the best heavyweight, but his two fights against Fury and Luis Ortiz in 2018 has certainly shown that he’s the most exciting fighter in the heavyweight division. Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) never gave up on himself tonight despite things looking bleak going into the 12th round. Fury, 30, looked like he was heading towards a sure thing win after dominating most of the previous 11 rounds, except for the 9th.
The fans would like to see Wilder and Fury do it again. It might not do as well on Showtime PPV as the first fight, but at least the two can meet again and hopefully the judges pick a clear winner that the boxing public agrees with.