WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is still unhappy about the way that the Showtime commentators like Paulie Malignaggi gave praise to Tyson Fury during their fight last December. Wilder thinks that the positive praise for Fury by the Showtime crew gave a false narrative to the casual boxing fans, who have little knowledge about the sport.
Wilder is scheduled to face Fury in a rematch on February 22. Before that, Wilder will be defending against Luis Ortiz on November 23 in a rematch on Fox Sports Pay-Per-View.
Wilder says he swept first 4 rounds
“You know why? I beat Fury. The first four rounds was me winning easy,” said Wilder to secondsout in discussing his fight last December against Fury. “The 5th round was a tossup. The only way people move that narrative [that Fury deserved a win over Wilder] like that is because of the commentary [from Showtime’s commentators]. The commentators by Showtime, Paulie Malignaggi, all of them, especially Paulie. And [Steve] Farhood’s scorecard, come on,” said Wilder.
If you’re going by who was landing the cleaner, harder shots during the fight, Wilder was your guy. He landed the harder shots in every round of the fight. All 12 rounds. If the idea is to give the victory to the fighter that landed the harder punches, Wilder easily won. But if you’re counting Fury’s slapping shots, then you thought he won. All that is apart from the 12th round knockdown that Wilder scored, because that a special case all to itself. That clearly looked like Wilder had knocked Fury out, but the referee, for whatever reason, didn’t stop the fight.
So they were fed favorable comments about Fury in a fight that Wilder felt that he did a lot better than he was given credit for. Indeed, Wilder believes he deserved to win the first four rounds of the contest, and he thinks the 5th round was a toss-up round.
The fight was ultimately scored a 12 round draw by the three judges, but Wilder felt that he was robbed of a knockout victory by the referee Jack Reiss giving what he felt was a delayed count after he had dropped the 6’9″ Fury in the 12th round. Fury looked to be unconscious for five seconds after Wilder sent him down with a perfectly placed right-left combination.
Deontay says Showtime commentary influenced the casual fans
“I won the first four rounds easily. So when you have commentary like that. For a lot of people, this was their first time watching boxing and tuning in to boxing, because of the promotion.
“So people come in like that and look at boxing, and what’s going on, they don’t know what to think, and what’s going on. What thing they do know is they’re being given direction from is the commentary,” said Wilder.
Showtime commentator Paulie Malignaggi is a fighter whose entire career was based on being slick, and outsmarting bigger, stronger fighters than himself. It’s not surprising that Malignaggi seemed to admire Fury’s work during the fight with Wilder, because that’s his style of fighting. Malignaggi could relate to the spoiling style of fighting that Fury showed.
Wilder thinks he got a raw deal by Showtime commentators during Fury fight
“Most definitely, and I’ve been saying that,” said Wilder when asked if he ‘got a raw deal during the broadcast with the commentating.’ “I’ve been saying, and I’ll say over and over again that I did. I worked with the network, but the commentary goes against other guys. Look at the [Luis] Ortiz fight. It’s always something pushed through the challenger and not me.
“It’s always something good said about them, and it’s always something good about what I should be doing or need to be doing. It’s never anyone seeing the greatness of what I’m doing until I pop them in the middle of the sentence with them complementing the opponent, and it’s always like that.
When you commentate like that, you paint a narrative to the other people that are on the outside looking in. They say, ‘Oh, he [Wilder] got beat 10 to 2’ [by Tyson Fury] when they don’t even know what the hell they’re looking at or how to score a card.” said Wilder.
It did seem at times like the Showtime talking heads were praising Fury a little too much at the expense of Wilder. They could compliment Fury after he would land a slapping punches, but then did not say anything after Wilder would connect with a big shot. It was a very ugly fight to watch in terms of entertainment value. If the gold standard for fighting was the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Shawn Porter fight last weekend, then the Wilder-Fury fight was more of a fools gold type of fight. Fury really made it ugly with his negative style of fighting. He’s a like his nephew Hughie Fury. Both of them spoil nonstop, and it’s hard to watch if you’re a boxing purest and like to see action.
Fury was trying to influence the judges with taunting states Deontay
“I thank God I had smart judges that could read through the things Fury was doing, because he can also influence the judges’ decision and mindset,” said Wilder. “When he do all the taunting at the end of the round, and sticking his arms up, those are tactics to try and win the round when you didn’t win. It’s to try and make people think, ‘I’m still here. I won, you know. I got the more energy.’
“Thank God I had amazing judges that night that could read through all that, because he wasn’t doing nothing. He was actually missing a lot of shots as well. I never got credit on the things I was doing good, and I always got credit for the things I was doing bad.
Fury always taunts his opponents, and showboats like crazy in his fights. It looked like Fury was just trying to survive in there, and celebrating when the rounds ended because he was still upright. Towards the end of the fight, Fury ran out of gas and was dropped twice. If it had been a different referee, Fury would have likely been knocked out.
Wilder: I knocked Fury out
“Forget the draw, because that was no draw,” said Deontay. “I knocked him out. [Referee] Jack Reiss showed favoritism [towards Fury]. He had an emotional connection to Fury because of his story along with everybody else, and along with the commentary, because they had an emotional connection, which you don’t do.
“Jerry [Jack] said he went out with the ‘spirit of boxing and not the rules.’ What are you talking about? Your job is to count [when a fighter has been knocked down]. That’s one of your jobs is to count. Go back when you see Fury getting up. First off, he didn’t start counting immediately.
“He’s over him, and [then] he’s counting. The outside person is supposed to start counting. He picks up what they count, so it’s supposed to be 4, 5, 6, 8. Fury is getting up, and you can see him pausing, 9, and then you know, he’s allowing him to come back. You’ve got to count him out. Now you go back and look at that fight. Jerry, that was all an emotional decision. All those things add up and accumulate to where people say, ‘He [Fury] really won.’ He didn’t win. It wasn’t no 10 [to 2]. Are you serious?” said Wilder.
It’s hard to understand why Fury was allowed to continue fighting. After was dropped, the referee was over by the ropes looking elsewhere. Then he came back started to count while Fury looked to be out cold. Not only did there appear to be a delay in the count, but also Fury looked like he was unconscious, Why was there a count under that circumstance?
If one looks at the fights that go on nowadays, the referees stop the contests if a fighter is on shaky legs after they get to their feet. Fury was in much worse condition in lying there with both eyes closed, and not moving a muscle. That fight could have been stopped on the spot without a count. The referee made a decision to let it go on. It’s a good thing that Fury wasn’t badly hurt, because it would have been tragic if those precious seconds were wasted by a referee giving a count to a fighter that was seriously hurt.
