Last weekend, the UFC held an event in Auckland, New Zealand where the main event fight between Paul Felder and Dan Hooker ended up being an early Fight of the Year candidate. But despite the excellent weekend for MMA, the biggest story in combat sports was Tyson Fury reclaiming the lineal heavyweight title with a seventh-round TKO of Deontay Wilder.
In one of the biggest boxing matches of the year, Fury dominated, beating the WBC heavyweight champion from pillar to post and making the feared KO artist look slow, unsure, and completely out of his element. It was a one-sided beatdown that had many analysts predicting Wilder would forego his option for an automatic rematch. Instead, Wilder is going the other direction, and doing the most MMA thing imaginable: exercising his right to an automatic rematch with Fury and blaming his loss on the clothes he was wearing.
Speaking with Yahoo Sports, Wilder claimed that the Fury never actually hurt him in the fight but that he was unable to compete to the best of his abilities due to wearing an enormous, metal-adorned costume during his grand entrance that weighed over 40 pounds and sapped his strength from him before the bout was even started.
“He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is … that my uniform was way too heavy for me,” Wilder tsaid. “I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight. In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through. But I’m a warrior and people know that I’m a warrior. It could easily be told that I didn’t have legs or anything. A lot of people were telling me, ‘It looked like something was wrong with you.’ Something was, but when you’re in the ring, you have to bluff a lot of things. I tried my best to do so. I knew I didn’t have the legs because of my uniform.
“I was only able to put it on [for the first time] the night before, but I didn’t think it was going to be that heavy. It weighed 40, 40-some pounds with the helmet and all the batteries. I wanted my tribute to be great for Black History Month. I wanted it to be good and I guess I put that before anything.”
Fury knocked Wilder down in both the third and fifth rounds of the fight before Wilder’s corner threw in the towel in the seventh round, a decision which Wilder is still upset with his corner for.
“I am upset with Mark [Breland, Wilder’s coach] for the simple fact that we’ve talked about this many times and it’s not emotional,” Wilder said. “It is not an emotional thing, it’s a principal thing. We’ve talked about this situation many, many years before this even happened. I said as a warrior, as a champion, as a leader, as a ruler, I want to go out on my shield. If I’m talking about going in and killing a man, I respect the same way. I abide by the same principal of receiving.
“So I told my team to never, ever, no matter what it may look like, to never throw the towel in with me because I’m a special kind. I still had five rounds left. No matter what it looked like, I was still in the fight. I understand he was looking out for me and trying to do what he felt was right, but this is my life and my career and he has to accept my wishes.”
Title fight. Henry Cejudo will defend his bantamweight title against Jose Aldo at UFC 250.
Retirement. ‘Minotouro’ Nogueira to ‘probably’ retire after trilogy bout with ‘Shogun’ Rua at UFC 250.
Goals. Al Iaquinta hopes to talk Paul Felder off retirement ledge if Dustin Poirier fight fizzles.
Surgery. ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung to undergo eye surgery, targeting summer return.
Volkanovski. UFC 251 confirmed for Perth on June 7.
Bellator 240 highlights.
UFC Norfolk Anatomy.
Free fight.
Dan Hardy’s top 10 fights of the decade.
Ronda Rousey teaches Steve-O judo.
Anik & Florian. Recapping UFC Auckland and previewing the flyweight title fight.
UFC Unfiltered. An interview with Megan Anderson.
At least Henry knows Aldo is the GOAT.
The Battle is set for May 9. The Stand off in Sao Paolo .
Welcome to the Greatest Show on earth . Triple C will remain Champion, Triple will Conquer another Goat. My Brazilians save your appetite from Carnavale because daddy will be serving Goat On May 9th. #andstill pic.twitter.com/M4TnLQReen— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) February 24, 2020
Mad.
Ready to defend.
UFC is coming to Perth!!
As Australia’s UFC WORLD CHAMPION, it’s only fitting for me to DEFEND and KEEP that belt here in Australia. LETS make that happen!! #ufc251 pic.twitter.com/nv1gxlL91b— Alex Volkanovski (@alexvolkanovski) February 25, 2020
Ouch.
Nathaniel Wood ready to go again.
Costa.
Glad you learned your lesson. Now shut your big mouth already. Respect the people and be ready to be erased.
Esse Magrelo viu a merda que fez e se desculpou. Espero que mantenha-se assim; quietinho e se prepare para ser trucidado . pic.twitter.com/jAo820WSUl
— Paulo Costa ( Borrachinha ) (@BorrachinhaMMA) February 24, 2020
Chase Hooper trying to get his own show.
Here’s the pilot for my show on UFC Fight Pass
Will it get picked up for a full season? Will my undies signed? Only time will tell… https://t.co/nIBPE7qUZ7
— Chase Hooper (@chase_hooper) February 25, 2020
Marius Pudzianowski (13-7, 1 NC) vs. Quentin Domingos (5-1); KSW 53, March 21.
Henry Cejudo (15-2) vs. Jose Aldo (28-6); UFC 250, May 9.
It would appear that Deontay Wilder is not a student of history or else he’d have seen what happened to Kimo and wouldn’t have repeated his same mistakes.
Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.
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This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
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