Tyson Fury deserves all the plaudits after his excellent performance against Deontay Wilder on Saturday night.The Brit was controversially denied victory - and the WBC heavyweight title - after his controlled display against the American at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.However, some boxing fans believe Fury can have few complaints with the draw after being floored in the ninth and final rounds.The fight was scored 115-111 for Wilder, 114-112 for Fury and 113-113 after 12 rounds, much to Fury’s bemusement."I don't know what he was watching," he was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. "It's stuff like this that gives boxing a bad name. All the media will report bad stuff. Everyone in boxing saying a bad thing, time and again we see it. He needs banning from boxing forever."The world knows who the real WBC champion is. Wilder had a gift decision in his own country. He must be thanking his lucky stars he still has the green and gold belt as that belt belongs to me."Many current and former fighters agree that Fury did enough to win the bout, including ex-world champions Floyd Mayweather, Lennox Lewis, Tony Bellew and Carl Froch.
However, everything is now set up perfectly for a lucrative rematch between the two undefeated heavyweights.Wilder, though, could be forgiven if he feels reluctant to fight Fury in the UK, having been left off the hook with the judges’ scores in his home country.The 33-year-old may have been slightly taken aback by just how good his opponent was, considering Fury had only fought twice since the biggest win of his career against Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015.A clip of Fury’s excellent head movement from the 11th round shows he was different class in arguably the biggest fight of his career so far.Watch it here…
Just look at how quickly he dodges Wilder’s punches.
As one boxing fan on Reddit pointed out: “Genuinely reminded me of Mayweather for a second or two.”
Indeed, Floyd himself would have been proud of those defensive movements.
Fury did get caught in the next round, of course, but miraculously got back to his feet and finished the fight, avoiding defeat in the process.
"It's easy to beat me - nail me to the canvas," Fury joked.
"Credit to him, he caught me flush. I got up and don't know how. You can't go swimming and not get wet. I got wet, drenched actually.
"When you're on your back flat out, you don't know what your legs will be like. I see it in boxing, they get up after a few seconds and the legs are gone.
"I gave myself the time. Fair play to the referee, fantastic, one of the best I have ever experienced."