Fury vs Wallin Recap

Fury vs Wallin Recap

By Will Collett

It was Mexican Independence weekend and time for another Tyson Fury extravaganza. Donning a Mexican themed poncho and sombrero, he slowly made his way to the ring on a parade float, much to the amusement of the crowd.

As far as raising his profile in the States goes, spectacles such as these will surely go a long way. There is however no point in such a pre fight display if the excitement in the ring does not match . Luckily for fans this bout delivered on all levels, with drama peppered throughout.

With Fury starting a 1/25 favourite, it is fair to say that almost everybody was expecting a routine victory. Little did we know that what was about to ensue would shorten those odds dramatically.

With a relatively slow start, something not uncommon for Fury, the fight suddenly exploded into action in the third round. A left hook from Wallin landed flush on the top of Fury’s face causing a monstrous gash to form above his right eye with blood pouring out.

Fury’s corner were told by the referee that the cut was caused by a clash of heads, however after the action replay, those at ringside came to the realisation that the cause was indeed from a punch.

With ESPN’s commentators alerting the Fury corner to this update, the dynamic of the fight suddenly changed. Now the fight being called off due to the cut would mean a TKO victory for 28 year old Swedish challenger Otto Wallin.

Wallin, buoyed by the turn of events, turned his focus to Fury’s eye. With blood continuing to pour from the eye, it fell to Tyson to be as elusive as possible, avoiding as much damage as he could.

The bell sounded for round six and Fury had still not come to grips with his cut. With blood consuming his vision, the referee stepped in to ask the ringside physician to examine the severity of the damage.

Realising the magnitude of his situation, Tyson insisted he was able to continue and once given the all clear, became a man possessed. Not long after the action resumed, the referee broke their clinch, with Wallin taking this opportunity to claw at the eye of Fury with his glove to worsen the damage, a tactic many including Fury were outraged at.

With little time in the fight prior to the cut, to get into any sort of rhythm, Fury’s usual sharp and slick self was a distant memory. Although it was impressive that Fury had managed to navigate his way through the fight with the possibility of it being stopped constantly looming over him, his performance was not one that would strike fear into the heart of any of the other elite heavyweights.

In fact, after the fight, Wilder crowed that he was responsible for what we saw, with no man ever being the same after sharing the ring with him. A bold claim but to be expected from such a self-assured knock-out artist.

The higher likelihood however, is that Fury’s underwhelming performance came from a combination of slightly overtraining, possibly overlooking Wallin as an opponent as well as the lack of vision from his right eye.

Fury’s trainer Ben Davison has come under much scrutiny following this performance.

He stated that he was aware of the possibility of overtraining going into the fight, however, also had to take into consideration the importance that the role of training plays as a way of therapy for Tyson in keeping his mind occupied. Ifovertraining was an issue, the inevitable break following such a severe cut, will allow his body to recover from what would have been an arduous training camp, as well as another significant weight drop.

Some of the criticism that the Fury camp experienced came from closer to home than people might expect. John Fury, someone known for speaking their mind, was live on BT Sport Box
Office when he claimed that this was the worst he had seen his son and even went on to say that he should fire his entire team.

Whether this is a sign of a fractious relationship in the Fury camp, or whether it was just emotions running high remains to be seen.

Despite Fury controlling the majority of the fight, there were moments where he was
momentarily stunned by the underdog. Amongst the commentators and many at home, there was the feeling that if there had been any other elite heavyweight in there with him tonight, he may not have made the final bell.

Forced by his impaired vision to use the full force of his 254 pound frame to wear down Wallin, the fleet footed and evasive Tyson was not on display that night.

Whilst the performance was arguably not worthy of the pre-fight ring walk, it was perhaps fitting that it came on Mexican independence weekend. The style of fight on show was a true tribute to the Mexican way of fighting, with blood, guts and courage shown by both men.

For Otto Wallin, fighting with the spirit of his recently deceased father behind him, the notion of giving up was not a possibility and he walks away from this fight with newfound respect. The scores stood at 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110, all in favour of Lineal champion Tyson Fury.

Despite the decision unquestionably going to the correct man, Wallin covered himself in glory, honouring his late father with his performance. Perhaps in the future, fans will not be so quick to judge opponents they know so little about.

Despite a much harder fought fight than many were expecting, Fury’s win sets up a
blockbuster showdown with American rival and WBC heavyweight champion Deontay
Wilder, provided he comes through his rematch with Cuban veteran Luis Ortiz.

Regardless of the high drama their first fight contained, many are expecting Wilder to dispatch of Ortiz in far quicker fashion than the first fight. Although it must be remembered that in this division in
particular, a victory is far from guaranteed.

This experience is all too familiar to Anthony Joshua, when making his American debut at MSG in June earlier this year, he was dropped and stopped by late replacement Andy Ruiz Jr. Joshua’s career is now riding on the result of the rematch, which has been set for December 7th in Saudi Arabia.

If he regains his titles, the door for the mega fights between Wilder and Fury are back open, however, if he loses to Ruiz a second time, there suddenly emerges a new major player in the division.

Moving away from the elite names of heavyweight boxing, fans of the division are still in line for some world class action over the coming months.

Chisora and Parker are already in camp getting ready to face each other on the undercard of Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor’s unification bout. We are still waiting to see what the outcome will be of Dillian Whyte’s ongoing UKAD case, but in the meantime he remains out of the mix.

Eddie Hearn has recently expressed his desire to place Alexander Povetkin on the undercard of Ruiz vs Joshua against American heavyweight Michael Hunter following his points decision win against Sergey Kuzmin at the weekend.

Former cruiserweight opponent of Hunter, Oleksander Usyk, has yet to make his heavyweight debut, however is already heavily mooted to be the next fighter to dominate the division.

Having boxed at super-heavyweight in the WSB, he has already faced larger men such as Joe Joyce, however often leaving himself open to being hit, going in against someone like Wilder is a different proposition.

Whilst the elite names of the heavyweight division all have numerous years left ahead of them, it is comforting to know the future is bright.

Up and coming fighters such as Daniel Dubois and Filip Hrgovic have been making their way through the ranks, flattening everyone in their path and look to be welcome additions at the world scene if they can maintain this impressive progress.