Yep. Plus the scar tissue is weaker than the original. Which may have been the issue in the first place.
Teddy Atlas put it this way (paraphrased and butchered by me no doubt but the message is clear) “It’s almost easier to keep fighting than to QUIT. Because if you QUIT you have a lifetime to think about that, maybe an eternity. Once you QUIT, you can never go back, EVER! So it’s easier to fight on for what, 12x3 minutes that’s thirty six minutes versus eternity. So what are you going to choose?”
Not so true really. If Joshua wouldn’t have “quit” and received more of a sustained beating for the final few rounds it would have been to then detriment of his career, health and mental state. If Joshua comes through the rematch do you think he’s going to be thinking for eternity about losing the first match? Is he ****. If Fury would’ve “quit” after 5/6 because he couldn’t see, it would’ve been solely been down to the cut and blood and his eye. There would’ve been literally nothing he could do about it if it was a bit worse, nobody would’ve blamed him and you can bet he would’ve had a rematch and came through too.
Going back to the Wilder Fight, although there were concerns about whether Fury would be sharp enough, he looked right on his game with his movement and all that jerky head movement as well. There were numerous occasions where he was timing Wilder's punches where they were missing by centimetres. With Wallin he was just very easily hit and from a predictable come forward fighter who wasn't doing anything fancy and wasn't throwing that many punches either. Fury looked awful even before the eye and I doubt they stick him back him with Wilder next, or any big puncher or volume puncher. On that performance I would be very concerned for Fury against Wilder. On just about his A game he got splattered. On the Wallin performance and if that is his level now, If I was representing Fury I wouldn't have anything to do with Wilder ever again, sad as it is to say as a boxing fan who wants to see it.
Thought Fury looked fairly good. The cut obviously changed the fight and Wallin perhaps was slightly better than they were expecting. Fury told Bunce during the week that he knew very little about Wallin. Big shame if the cut pushes the Wilder fight back though.
I really believe Fury took on the alter ego of (his perception) a Mexican fighter. Not for many years have I seen Fury walk down an opponent and have it out with them, sometimes even on the inside. He’s wore a mask all week and did the big Mexican entrance, he was never going to jab and move for 12 rounds, it’s guaranteed boos from a Mexican audience. I reckon the cut only enthused this alter ego of his of having a war with Wallin. It was utterly stupid, and I think that was probably the real source of his dad’s frustration.
Yeah I just read a BBC article where they were comparing the ring walks with Wilder and Wallin. He was hitting pads waiting for Wilder but messing about on his Mexican float for Wallin. If he has tried the Mexican style then they've let the rabbit out of the hat, because any decent puncher who is willing to walk forward and close him down will be confident they can inflict the same and worse damage as Wallin.
Can’t see him ever fighting like that again, mate, it should have probably been stopped and he was in major trouble in that 12th too. That’s twice that’s happened the last two times he’s gone 12 rounds. That tendency he had earlier in his career, to lose his concentration and get sloppy is still there. If we’re honest, Klitschko caught him in the 12th too.
I thought it was one of Fury ‘s more interesting fights and given all the negativity around Wallin as an opponent I thought he was pretty good . I think a few of our other UK heavyweights will avoid Wallin .The cut will obviously put back the Wilder rematch and the heavyweight landscape is pretty fluid at moment and a lot depends on Wilder v Ortiz and AJ v Ruiz.
I am sure they thought Wallin would be another Schwartz. Fury would be allowed to showboat for a couple of rounds before going inside and taking Wallin out in emphatic fashion. I don't think he'd do this against anyone he perceived to be top 10, but I think Wallin showed himself to be a good fighter in his own right. On that showing, I think he's definitely top 20 and could potentially cause a few of the top 10 issues. He's awkward, durable and a tall southpaw - not the easiest style at all.
Boxrec gave the match 3 stars, but it's only just about managed the 3, since Wallin had just 42.77 points going into it, just 2 and a bit more than the 40.5 qualifier. It's more like a 2 star match. I know ratings can be taken however you want, but I wonder whether they look at this during opponent choice - it does go on both fighter's record after all. Out of interest, Schwartz had 27.78 points going into his fight with Tyson. Not a huge gap between Schwartz and Wallin on that ranking system. As mentioned by others though, perhaps Wallin is better than we thought. We'll find out. Bout Star Ratings All bouts are rated with 0 to 5 stars. Men 5 stars = both opponents have 279 rating points at least ~ best 100 boxers 4 stars = both opponents have 122 rating points at least ~ best 300 boxers 3 stars = both opponents have 40.5 rating points at least ~ best 900 boxers 2 stars = both opponents have 5.92 rating points at least ~ best 2700 boxers 1 stars = both opponents have 0.428 rating points at least = best 8100 boxers 0 stars = one opponents has not even 0.428 rating points at least = not rated boxers
Doesn't matter too much what Boxrec think - they're just a website that has an algorithm for measuring boxers. What we're discussing here is the eye test - it's obvious that Wallin is levels about Schwartz and based on Fury's interviews with Steve Bunce this week they overlooked him.
Just listening to Fight Disciples podcast I can’t help but agree with them about Fury showing that he’s a fighter who learned to box... Fury in corner, blood pouring out of his face, in the trenches boomed “I live for this ****”...for all the negativity Fury showed his fighting instincts through adversity. You have to give him credit that he does revel in a scrap.
