I would add that in order to effectively land punches thrown in bunches Wilder will have to close the distance on Fury and do a better job of cutting off the ring. I hope this is the improvement Wilder has been working on.
Good assessment but with a caveat. Fury in the first fight only gave the appearance of landing many more punches than Wilder. By official CompuBox records Fury land 13 more punches in the entire fight than did Wilder. That's barely more than one punch per round. This to me means that we can be greatly influenced in our perception of how good a boxer is simply because they dance around even though they fail to truly engage their opponent.
This doesn't really matter, because fights are scored 3 minutes at a time. When did he land those punches? How effective were they, and how did they look to the judges (like the uppercut in round 12 after being dropped)? It's a common argument for fans of certain fighters (not calling you partisan) to complain that their guy was the actual winner because he landed x more punches than the guy who got it on the cards. Watching the fight in real time, I gave it to Fury 114-112.
Wilder just didn't look good to me outside of dropping Fury twice. He doesn't cut the ring, gets hit way too often looking for the magic shot, has bad balance, misses WIDE with desperate wild rights, telegraphs good opportunities, etc. Fury's skill can magnify all of this, and for most people it did. Wilder just kinda followed Fury around the ring eating jabs and looking off-balance. Defense and ring generalship play a part in scoring too, and when the action is about even, judges defer to these to pick winners of rounds.
Wilder needs to come in heavier and with better cardio. The end of the first Fury fight was the first time I ever saw Wilder look gassed in a fight.
He was still recovering from the flu leading up to the first fight if im not mistaken. That's why he came in lighter.Same thing in the first Ortiz fight and you saw what happened in that sequel-an earlier KO.
If the odds are close enough I'm betting a decent sum on Wilder by KO. And he may do it in the first half of the fight.
This doesn't really matter, because fights are scored 3 minutes at a time. When did he land those punches? How effective were they, and how did they look to the judges (like the uppercut in round 12 after being dropped)? It's a common argument for fans of certain fighters (not calling you partisan) to complain that their guy was the actual winner because he landed x more punches than the guy who got it on the cards. Watching the fight in real time, I gave it to Fury 114-112.
Wilder just didn't look good to me outside of dropping Fury twice. He doesn't cut the ring, gets hit way too often looking for the magic shot, has bad balance, misses WIDE with desperate wild rights, telegraphs good opportunities, etc. Fury's skill can magnify all of this, and for most people it did. Wilder just kinda followed Fury around the ring eating jabs and looking off-balance. Defense and ring generalship play a part in scoring too, and when the action is about even, judges defer to these to pick winners of rounds.
I would agree Fury's display of ring generalship is what gave him a draw and I would say the draw was fair. I've got respect for Fury because I believe he fears Wilder's power and yet has confidence he can avoid it in the rematch. Win or lose this fight will be suspenseful and the loser will still be one of the top four heavyweights.
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