That’s all for now. Thanks as always for following along, meanwhile here’s the full report from Los Angeles:
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Here’s a look at the official scorecard. Rochin’s card differs sharply with his assessment of the early rounds, which he awarded to Wilder. (Update: A CSAC representative has just announced Robert Tapper’s announced score of 114-110 to Fury was in fact 114-112. Simple arithmetic error. The corrected scorecard appears below.)
The CSAC's corrected scorecard for #WilderFury. pic.twitter.com/l82pddBfh9
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) December 2, 2018
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Fury: 'The world knows I won the fight'
“We’re on away soil, I got knocked down twice, but I still believe I won that fight,” Fury says. “I’m being a total professional here. I went to Germany to fight Klitschko and I went to America to fight Deontay Wilder. God bless America. The Gypsy King has returned.”
He continues: “I’m what you call a pro athlete that loves to box. I don’t know anyone on the planet that can move like that. That man is a fearsome puncher and I was able to avoid that. The world knows I won the fight.
“I hope I did you all proud after nearly three years out of the ring. I was never going to be knocked down tonight. I showed good heart to get up. I came here tonight and I fought my heart out.
“I’ve been away from me family for 10 weeks. I’m just going to spend some time with my family. Well deserved.
“One hundred percent, we’ll do the rematch. We are two great champions. Me and this man are the two best heavyweights on the planet.”
Wilder: 'It was a great fight and let's do it again'
“I think with the two knockdowns I definitely won the fight,” Wilder says. “We poured our hearts out tonight. We’re both warriors, but with those two drops I think I won the fight. I came out slow. I rushed my punches. I didn’t sit still. I was too hesitant. I started overthrowing the right hand and I just couldn’t adjust.”
He continues: “When you’re at each other and you have a great fight, we give each other all we’ve got. At the end of the fight that’s what it’s all about. He was just tell me great fight, he loves, and thank you for the opportunity. We’re the best in the world. The respect was mutual.
“I was rushing my punches. That’s something I usually don’t do. I couldn’t let it go tonight. I was forcing my punches too much instead of sitting back being patient and waiting it. I really wanted to get him out of there give the fans what they want to see.
“I didn’t feel no pressure at all. When I rush my punches like that I’m never accurate. The rematch I guarantee I’m going to get him.
“I would love for it to be my next fight (on the rematch). Why not? Let’s give the fans what they want to see. It was a great fight and let’s do it again. It doesn’t matter to me where we do it.
“We’re the two best in the world and we proved it tonight. When you get two warriors you get a great fight. That’s what we proved tonight and I’m ready to do it again.”
“I think it was a great fight,” Wilder says. “We need to do it again. We need to do it again in America, [but] it doesn’t matter to me.”
Fury at his gregarious finest in what’s become a joint in-ring interview with Wilder and Showtime’s Jim Gray ... and they collectively make fun of Anthony Joshua. Fury has no doubt won over a lot of American fans tonight.
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Deontay Wilder retains the WBC heavyweight title by split draw!
Here are the official scores. Alejandro Rochin of Mexico scores it 115-111 to Wilder. Robert Tapper of Canada has it 114-110. Phil Edwards of the United Kingdom scores it 113-113. It’s a split draw! Wilder retains the title on a draw. Let the inquest begin.
With scores of 115-111 for @BronzeBomber, 114-110 for @Tyson_Fury and 113-113 - #WilderFury is a draw pic.twitter.com/5BU3YteW49
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) December 2, 2018
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Fury down in the 12th!
Round 12
Fury down! Early in the 12th! Is he going to beat the count?! I don’t think so! I don’t think he will. But Fury makes it to his feet! Somehow! The referee lets him continue. Fury hanging on for dear life! Unbelievable. Wilder going in for the finish but Fury holding! What heart by both guys and now Wilder looks gassed. Back and forth they go and there’s the bell!
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 10-8 Fury (Wilder 111-115 Fury)
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Round 11
Fury continues to jab away. Wilder needs a knockout. And Fury, still boxing so well, simply not accommodating. He’s just making him miss again and again with deft head and upper-body movement, coolly picking his shots in response. Wilder’s power bailed him out when he was outboxed by Szpilka and Ortiz: can it bail him out here? Good left hook by Wilder but not enough to under another impressive stanza by Fury, who is one round away from completing a truly incredible comeback from the abyss.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 101-107 Fury)
Round 10
Fury lands a big right on Wilder early in the 10th. He’s now throwing that left jab with authority again, coming forward with it. He’s doubling it up, he’s tripling it up. Wilder badly needed that knockdown but in a strange way watching this first minute it seems Fury did, too. Wilder seems a bit gassed from the last round. He’s not thrown much here. Fury throws a big left-right combo but misses. Good rally by Wilder at the end but not enough. What a rebound for the Gypsy King.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 92-97 Fury)
Fury down in the ninth!
Round 9
Wilder lands a right hand and down goes Fury in a heap! Fury down in the ninth! There it is! Fury beats the count and smartly wraps up Wilder as he comes in for the finish. We’ve got a fight! Now Wilder looks like he’s hurt! Both men exhausted. Fury’s bearings clearly back. What a round!
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 10-8 Fury (Wilder 83-87 Fury)
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Round 8
This is some performance by Fury. A comprehensive boxing lesson. Fury beginning to land the right hand upstairs with more consistency. Wilder simply being exposed and it doesn’t seem like his corner has any answers. Another for Fury, who continues to showboat.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 73-79 Fury)
Round 7
Wilder’s eye is swelling. It appears he has no Plan B: he’s just hoping Fury walks into a shot and so far it’s not happening. A big right hand over the top for Fury! Oh boy. Wilder appears to have landed something (maybe?) and Fury falls backward and the American comes to life, swinging wildly at Fury as he’s backed along the ropes. But Fury smartly wraps his opponent up and stems the tide. This is looking bad for Wilder. Fury just making him miss everything and doing enough to win rounds uncontroversially.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 64-69 Fury)
Round 6
Fury backs Wilder down with a combination. He’s much busier this round and Wilder looks tentative. Fury controlling entire stretches of the fight with his jab. Wilder lands a few left jabs cleanly toward the end of the round, including one sharp one. We’re only halfway through the scheduled 12-round distance but I believe Wilder is in trouble on the scorecards and in danger of needing something special to win this fight.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 55-59 Fury)
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Round 5
Fury is using that left jab so well: as an offensive weapon, a rangefinder and barricade. Yet one minute into the fifth and already we notice his output is dropping. Will the cardio be an issue? Wilder still missing a lot and his eye is beginning to swell. Fury still scoring with jabs and making Wilder miss. But will he be able to stay clear of that Wilder right hand in the second half if he begins to fade? Wilder tries to steal a very close round in the last 10 seconds with a big one-two combo as he walks Fury into a corner but he misses both shots by a few feet. Close one to Fury but he needs to do more than make Wilder miss.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 46-49 Fury)
Round 4
Truly cracking atmosphere. Fury moving so well, but can he keep it up for a full 12 rounds? Wilder misses again with the right hand and Fury counters with a hook. Fury connects with a jab, jabs again, jabs once more, Wilder misses yet again with a big right. Fury continues with the more impressive boxing, but when Wilder does land he’s landing the heavier punches. A trickle of blood from Fury’s nose, I believe. Wilder missing so many right hands. Is there a Plan B? Close round goes to Fury.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 37-39 Fury)
Round 3
Wilder looking to time Fury. He’s not used to fighting opponents who move this well, which makes sense as there aren’t many of them at heavyweight. Fury’s head movement excellent, too. He’s feinting so well, keeping the American off balance and tentative. Nice left hook to the body by Wilder, but Fury is scoring with the jab upstairs. Wilder misses wildly with a sizzling right hand and Fury touches back with a quick flurry of pot-shots to the belly. Clearest round yet.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 28-29 Fury)
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Round 2
Fury looking more comfortable in there early in the second. He throws a few jabs as he ventures a bit closer into the pocket. He’s moving well. Now Fury is clowing again, throwing his hands skyward to bait Wilder. Wilder charges in but Fury wraps him up before he can do any damage. Wilder lands a very good right hand at the end of the round. Not much landed that round. Very close round that could go either way, but we’ll give it to Wilder.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 10-9 Fury (Wilder 19-19 Fury)
Round 1
They’re measuring one another up in the center of the ring. U-S-A! chants from the crowd. Wilder feints and Fury mocks him. Wilder connects with a jab. Fury then puts his hands behind his back, baiting Wilder. Fury lands a few jabs. Fury throws twice to the body and Wilder counters with a left hook and Fury felt it. He’s backing up. Fury tries to triple up a left jab but Wilder evades them easily. And Fury connects with a big right-hand counter at the end of the round! Oh boy! Right in the last 10 seconds and he raises his arms in jubilation after the bell sounds. Both had their moments in a tense first round but we’ll give it to Fury.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury
Wilder entered second, as is customary for the champion. Interestingly, he’s being introduced first. Lots of cheers for both men. This crowd is electric.
And here’s Wilder. The unbeaten WBC champions enters to a live performance of Jay Rock’s WIN complete with pyrotechnics, a full brass band that emerges piecemeal from the various concourses and his championship belt lowering from the rafters. Classically understated.
The fighters are making their walks. First it’s Fury, who is making a quite protracted jaunt to a medley of tracks: Jay’s Run This Town, Nicki’s Moment 4 Life, Gala’s Freed From Desire. Pick a song, Tyson!
Jimmy Lennon Jr is in the ring and we’re just about ready to go. He’s thanked all the first responders on hand for their help in the taming of the California fire. Now he’s called for a moment of silence and ceremonial 10-bell salute for yesterday’s passing of former US president George HW Bush. Now it’s time for the anthems: first God Save the Queen, then The Star-Spangled Banner.
“I’m just coming of surgery so I wanted to see how I worked off the jab,” Hurd says. I felt good I was working behind the jab. I got caught on the ropes and got caught with some shots and said: ‘That’s enough. He got enough TV time.’ ... I heard the crowd and I didn’t want to get brave, so I turned it up and got the knockdown.
He adds: “We definitely want [Jermell] Charlo. I’m calling the shots. I’m number one right now. When I say answer the phone, answer the phone. I got the date.”
And as if on cue ... Charlo, who holds the WBC’s version of the junior middleweight title, ambushes Hurd’s interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray.
“This is easy money,” Charlo says. “I like those belts. They look real good on you. He said he wants another fight? I’m ready now.”
Jarrett Hurd was taking a bit of a beating against Jason Welborn in the fourth round ... although to be fair Welbourn only landed a handful of those punches despite whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Then Hurd came into life and came back with a devastating shot to the stomach that put Welbourn down for the count. Referee Dr Lou Moret waved it off before the Tividale man could beat the count, putting a stop to it at the 1:55 mark. No problem at all with Hurd’s surgically repaired shoulder, it seems.
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“I’m a warrior,” Ortiz says through a translator after finishing off Kauffman. “Nothing contains me. We didn’t have to knock him out, but we wanted to show everything we have in our repertoire, and we showed it tonight.”
He adds: “Of course I’ll fight the winner of the main event (Wilder v Fury). I want that second fight with Wilder. I want to fight anybody.”
Just one more fight before the main event: Jarrett Hurd defends his IBF and WBA junior middleweight titles against England’s Jason Welborn. Hurd is making his ringwalk alongside the rapper The Game performing Dreams. Heady stuff.
Ortiz gets the stoppage early in the 10th and final round. He connects with a barrage of punches upstairs, sending Kauffman into full retreat. Referee Thomas Taylor correctly intervenes at the 1:58 mark.
Ortiz dropped Kauffman early in the sixth round, then again in the eighth. The American made it to the bell in both rounds but there’s no reason referee Thomas Taylor should let this one continue: Ortiz is ahead by an 80-70 whitewash on the Guardian’s unofficial card.
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Fairly dreadful stuff between Ortiz and Kauffman so far. The American is posing, posturing, taunting ... doing everything but fighting his opponent. He’s running. He’s losing. The crowd is getting a bit restless, as is Ortiz. To help you pass the time here’s our quiz on heavyweight title fights.
We’re into the second PPV undercard fight as Cuba’s Luis Ortiz faces Travis Kauffman of the United States in a 10-round heavyweight clash. It was only a few months ago when Ortiz gave Deontay Wilder the toughest moments of his professional career before succumbing to a 10th-round knockout. We’re only two rounds in but it seems Ortiz, who is listed at 39 years old, is picking his 33-year-old opponent apart early on.
“I’m getting people out quickly,” says Joyce, who out-landed Hanks by a 17-9 margin, including 10-4 with the jab. “I’ve got a lot of experience, I’m just going to improve on my strength and my speed. I’ve heard comments that I’m slow but I seem to land the shots and get the job done.”
He adds: “I’ve been doing well. There is plenty more to come. The support from back home in England. Thank you for coming. I hope I put on something good to watch. I am ready for anyone.
Joe Joyce does exactly what’s he’s meant to do: a quick knockout of the journeyman Joe Hanks with a punishing left hook at 2:25 of the first round. The Olympic silver medalist moves to 7-0 with 7 KOs. He’s 33 so time is not on his side, but he’s got a hell of a trainer on board with Abel Sanchez. “Whoever’s watching, I’m ready to show you all,” he says.
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Joe Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs), who won Olympic silver for Great Britain at super heavyweight in Rio, is in the ring for the first of tonight’s three pay-per-view undercard bouts. His opponent is Joe Hanks (23-2, 15 KOs), who was out of the sport for three and a half years after back-to-back losses to Andy Ruiz and Derrick Rossy. Feels like a bit of a showcase. We’ll keep you posted.
Hello and welcome to ringside at Staples Center for tonight’s WBC heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury. It’s one of the more intriguing and consequential matchups that boxing’s bellwether division has put forth in some time: a clash between unbeatens who both have legitimate claims to the heavyweight title.
It will be a hell of a scrap, not least because it could play out any number of different ways. And oddly enough – as much as it is possible for a matchup between unbeatens with 67 wins between them – it feels like a make-or-break fight for both.
Wilder is the warm favourite since he has been consistently active, with nearly all of his seven title defences taking place while Fury was out of the sport for two and a half years and had ballooned up to 25st. The American’s heat-seeking right hand is the most devastating weapon in the sport and seems more than adequate to end proceedings should it find purchase against an opponent who was dropped in the second round by shopworn, blown-up cruiserweight Steve Cunningham only six fights ago.
“[This is] definitely the most important but definitely not the most difficult fight. I have fought way tougher guys than him,” Wilder said after Friday’s weigh-in here, where the American came in more than three stones lighter than his challenger – 15st 2lb compared with 18st 4lb. “I get to release everything that’s inside of me. I can’t wait. I’m going to knock him out.”
Yet the truth remains Wilder has never been in with anyone of Fury’s class. The only recent names on his ledger even in the ballpark – the crafty but limited Artur Szpilka and the widely avoided Luis Ortiz – were both well ahead on my scorecards until Wilder closed the show with destructive outbursts of power. If the Gypsy King is even a fraction of the awkward operator who played the spoiler role to perfection against Wladimir Klitschko in quite arguably the most boring heavyweight title fight in history, then Wilder could find himself in a race against time to solve the puzzle.
Of course, Fury is taking on the challenge too soon, having fought only a pair of tune-ups against a pair of unknowns to shake off the rust, but anything that goes against the sport’s all too common practice of making the big fights on the wrong end of their sell-by dates is happy accident.
We’re about two hours from the main event. Plenty more to come between now and then.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Barney Ronay’s column on Tyson Fury’s improbable return and unlikely advocacy.
Right then. A hairy man. A sweaty, frightening hairy man, all “hurricane energy” and strange, tender feelings. Now who does that remind you of in the world of sport? Here’s a clue: he does bare his chest a lot. He’s a little wild and melancholy. And early on Sunday morning he will fight the fearsomely concussive WBC champion Deontay Wilder in Los Angeles, culmination of a three-year cycle of triumph, pain and vilification.
Yes, it is of course Tyson Fury, British sport’s own Iron John, for whom victory would be a step towards a potential unifying bout with his counterpoint, the buffed, shiny, notably measured Anthony Joshua; and an occasion that would qualify as the single biggest British boxing event of all time.
More than this, and perhaps still a little obscured by his own tender hooligan act, Fury is also on the edge of a genuinely extraordinary story. Plenty of athletes work their way back from a hamstring niggle or a run of poor form. Fury has come back from a place people don’t come back from. Not only the drugs and the going berserk in Magaluf or the ballooning weight, since when he has lost 10 stone, close to the equivalent of giving birth to a fully-formed adult Lionel Messi. But also the period where Fury seemed stuck in a moment, the defeat of Wladimir Klitschko that he’d been planning since he was 14 years old, and which has seemed to overwhelm him at times.
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