What on earth was going on with the judging of Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury?
The majority of fans believed that Fury was going to be announced as the new WBC heavyweight champion after the final bell on Saturday night, despite being dropped twice in the second half of the fight.
The judges saw things differently, however.
One judge, Alejandro Rochin, gave Wilder a distinct 115-111 advantage after 12 rounds of action while Fury wants the British Boxing Board of Control to speak to British official Phil Edwards for delivering a 113-113 score.
There was also a mistake on the only scorecard which gave Fury a win as the official scores were totted up incorrectly.
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
The tallies which were read out in Los Angeles’ Staples Centre announced that judge Robert Tapper saw the bout 114-110 in Fury’s favour and that was he official score, per SHOWTIME’s Twitter account.
But on closer inspection of Tapper’s tallies, Wilder’s round totals actually add up to 112, not 110, meaning that the wrong score was called out.
That error mattered little in the overall scheme of things as it didn’t affect the outcome because Tapper had given Fury enough rounds that the miscalculation wouldn’t have changed the result.
Fury has been commended by head trainer Ben Davison for keeping his composure in the ring in spite of the general consensus that he’d been robbed of a historic title win.
“I was telling my brothers and my family to keep quiet,” Fury explained in his post-fight press conference.
“There were about 8,000 travellers and Brits who had come from around the world, maybe even 10,000.
“They probably would have smashed this arena up if I’d instigated it and I mean to the floor!
“I just wanted to be an ambassador for my country and my people.”
