The sound and the Fury: Trilogy fight drags boxing off the canvas
PLUS: Has Kieran Read debased his legacy? F1 provides more drama than Netflix.
Like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the third act of Tyson Fury v Deontay Wilder put the previous two in the shade.
With that, seemingly out of nowhere, boxing has found itself slap, bang in the middle of an unlikely golden era, dragged off the canvas by a small clique of heavyweights who love a good punch up.
On a silly-season weekend when there was just a fraction of the sport we’ve been able to wrap our arms and heads around for the past month, Fury v Wilder was the undoubted highlight.
So much so that even though I couldn’t catch it live and knew the result by the time I got in front of it, the viewing experience was still visceral.
For someone internally conflicted by the contradictions of professional boxing, it was 40 minutes - 50 if you count the spectacularly over-the-top ring walks - of noble horror.
Watching Wilder slumped bloody and swollen on his stool at the end of the 10th, knowing that he was done and knowing that he was still going to back out in the 11th to press forward and invite disaster was an eerily moving spectacle.
It was also easy to forget that this was a fight few people outside of Wilder’s inner circle wanted to see.
The first fight, in 2018, was a classic. Fury outboxed Wilder throughout but the American’s power put Fury on his back twice, including in the 12th and final round, when it defied credibility that the Brit could return to his feet. When the judges’ cards were counted, there was a measure of surprise when it was called a draw - certainly those in Fury’s camp were nonplussed by Mexican judge Alejandro Rochin’s 115-111 scoring of the fight in Wilder’s favour.
Last year’s second fight was nothing more than a Fury clinic, with Wilder’s corner throwing in the towel in the seventh. Wilder has since framed this as a weak decision, but the guy was bleeding out the ear canal, from the mouth and was little more than a punching bag. It was not just a sensible call, it was the only humane call.
Then there was yesterday, a five-knockdown thriller (Fury twice, Wilder thrice), that will take its place among the best heavyweight fights of the television era. Everything you want to see in a prizefight was on display in Vegas: skill, mostly Fury’s; concussive one-punch power, mostly Wilder’s; and courage and heart, which both brought in spades.
“As worthy as any trilogy in the history of the sport,” Fury said in the aftermath and it is hard to argue. Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield fought each other to standstills, and Ali-Frazier occurred at a time when boxers were kings, but if this lost anything in comparison it was by the smallest of margins.
Boxing is built upon hyperbole, so take everything you hear with a fistful of salt, but even so Bob Arum and Frank Warren have been around the block.
“Listen, I've been in this business 57 years promoting fights and I truly have to say I have never seen a heavyweight fight as magnificent as this,” said Arum.
Warren: “It's the best live heavyweight fight I’ve seen. It was just amazing. Two warriors and just so absorbing. Tyson is the standout heavyweight of his generation.”
Shaquille O’Neal enjoyed it too!
And to think Fury didn’t want the match. His camp had been angling for a unification bout with fellow Brit Anthony Joshua, a fight that would have likely broken all revenue records.
That sense of missed opportunity would have only been heightened when Joshua convincingly lost to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk last month.
Joshua, the golden boy of the division, has triggered a rematch clause in a bid to earn back the WBO, WBA and IBF belts off Usyk, but for now the WBC belt is the premier one in the division and a match-up with Fury looks further away than ever.
That’s OK, too. You can put the names of Fury, Wilder, Usyk, Joshua, Dillian Whyte, Andy Ruiz Jr and even Joseph Parker into a hat and draw any two out and you get a good stoush.
Boxing might not be in a great place as a whole - it has lost ground to its upstart mixed martial arts cousins and it has sabotaged itself with corruption and poorly conceived promotions - but it still has a beating heart.
Maybe, just maybe, when all is said and done, Parker might get his due for being on the fringe of the conversation, even if you can’t see him thrusting himself back into the type of fights we’ve seen over the past month.
He is ranked the sixth-best heavyweight in the world on the influential BoxRec and The Ring ratings. In December he fights Dereck Chisora (9th on BoxRec) in a sequel fight that desperately needs to end in an exclamation point.
Look out on Friday for guest contributor Patrick McKendry, who will be taking a more forensic look at Parker’s career to date, his career to come and the glory of prizefighting.
WEEKEND ROUNDUP
There was a bit of footy on the weekend, though I have to admit to finding it difficult to find time in my life for the NPC. I love the idea of it and feel much more affinity for the amber-and-black of Taranaki than I ever have for either the Hurricanes or the Chiefs, but the competition has been shunted to the sidelines and feels very much like the third tier of rugby (some could argue that the ridiculous exposure and hype around schoolboy rugby has relegated it to fourth-tier status).
Even so, there were some points of note, none more so than Waikato upsetting Canterbury 22-20 to win the Farah Palmer Cup. Without sounding like the Grinch that Stole Christmas, the game deserved to stand on its own, without all the attention revolving around No8 Victoria Edmonds’ post-match “interview”.
It reminded me a little of the Tokyo Olympics, where the performances of the Black Ferns Sevens seemed to be overshadowed by their “viral” zany interviews. Yeah I know, it’s not a mutually exclusive deal; you can be brilliant and have box-office, off-the-cuff media interactions (lord knows the men could try it), but it again feels like the wrong part of the equation steals the headlines.
Elsewhere, Sam Cane warmed the cockles around the heartlands by turning out for 57 minutes for King Country in their 48-13 humbling at the hands of Whanganui.
I was forwarded this link from The Roar just before hitting publish, and it is an interesting take comparing the recent actions of Cane to that of his predecessor Kieran Read. Essentially the argument is that Cane’s return to his roots to play for King Country showed rugby’s best face, while Read’s interest in coaching in the World 12s was a long way from the best of rugby.
To be fair, the writer Geoff Parkes is not denying Read’s right to maximise his income from a sport he has given so much to, but the author is definitely not a fan of the concept.
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Formula One’s biggest problem in recent years has been the fact that it is nowhere near as exciting as Netflix’s “Drive to Survive”. Not until this year anyway.
The Turkish Grand Prix was processional at the front, but all sorts of things were going on in the background. Let’s just say Lewis Hamilton, easily the quickest driver all weekend, was not happy. He took a grid penalty that took him from pole to 11th, fought his way back to third before complying with team orders to pit for new tyres, dropping him to fifth and relinquishing his championship lead to Max Verstappen (2nd) in the process.
There are six points in this with six races to go. It’s all on. Mercedes and Hamilton look to have found something extra, but Verstappen has chutzpah. It’s almost like it’s a made-for-television docu-drama.
WEEK TO COME
I jumped the gun a little last week in promoting the return of The BYC in Wednesday - a week too early as it happens. What I can promise you, however, is an inspiring interview with a former test rugby player diagnosed with early onset dementia before he turned 40 and lot’s of other wholesome goodness.
Sample quote: “It was a hell of a day. We met Nelson Mandela and I woke up in hospital and I can’t remember anything in between.”
Just to reiterate a note I made on Friday, thanks to all who have signed up in the first month of The Bounce. It means a lot to see that there is an appetite and audience for this newsletter and I especially want to thank those who have contributed hard-earned dollars to my cause. Your contributions have enabled me to make the first steps towards providing quality, independent sports writing.