Wilder vs Fury highlights: How the hell did Tyson Fury get up?

Tyson Fury had fought a largely brilliant fight for almost an entire 12 rounds against dangerous bomber Deontay Wilder last night at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, mostly avoiding Wilder’s massive right hand power.

Sure, he was dropped in the ninth, but it wasn’t a huge knockdown. It wasn’t a Deontay Wilder knockdown. And other than that, Fury had pretty consistently made Wilder miss, and miss badly.

But then, in round 12, it happened.

Boom! (Or goom!)

Wilder connected with the right hand. A big one. A heavy, clean shot. And what’s worse for Fury, a left hook connected just after, when the 6’9” lineal champion was already tumbling to the canvas.

It was over.

Or so pretty much all of us thought.

“Down goes Fury! Mamma mia!” shouted Showtime boxing play-by-play man Mauro Ranallo, never lacking for enthusiasm or a chance to slip in his trademark catchphrase. “Deontay Wilder has done it!”

It sure looked like it. Deontay Wilder himself thought the fight was flat out over. He gestured with his hand, cutting across his throat, as soon as Fury hit the canvas, then shimmied from a distance as the fans roared.

For all of Fury’s slipperiness over the course of the fight, he couldn’t avoid the “Bronze Bomber” and his big punch for all 36 minutes. Wilder had done it again, knocked out another man, added to his record.

Then Tyson Fury rolled over, and he got up.

Paulie Malignaggi, a veteran fighter and former world champion, watched this happen as part of the Showtime broadcast crew.

“He’s up,” Malignaggi said, sounding legitimately shocked. “Wow! He got up!”

Referee Jack Reiss double and triple checked to see if Fury was OK. He instructed Fury to walk and come back to him.

Fury didn’t walk. He jogged, almost danced. Somehow, he was relatively fine.

Wilder tried to finish him. Not only didn’t he, but Fury fought back, clocking Wilder with a left hook that put the brakes on Deontay’s search for the finish. They went the distance. The fight was declared a draw.

So, seriously, how the hell did Tyson Fury get up? That fight was over. We all saw it happen in real time. We’ve seen replays and slow motion. He was decked by those two shots. Tyson Fury should not have gotten up from that punch.

Wilder said after the fight that he thought it was over.

“I don’t know how he got up,” Wilder said, adding, “I really thought I had him out of there. I hit him with a right hand and followed with the left hook. Everyone knows I’ve got heavy hands and I hit hard.

“I literally seen this man’s eyes roll in the back of his head. I seen Jack on the ground with him checking him. I’m, like, ‘It’s over!’

“Only God knows how he got back up.”

Boxers aren’t superhuman or invincible, of course. They’re flesh and blood like the rest of us — hard men and women, yes, but mortal and human. Sometimes, though, it can seem like they are from another planet. This was one of those times.

I don’t know. I keep watching it, and, like Wilder, I can’t imagine how Fury got up and was able to fight on.

Maybe this time, I’ll just listen to Andre Berto.

“He’s a tough ass white boy,” Berto said after the fight. “He’s awkward, he knows how to box. He’s smart, he’s slick, and I give him a lot of credit, man. He’s tough as shit.”

Maybe it’s really as simple as that. Maybe Tyson Fury is just tough as shit.