LAS VEGAS — It began with Tyson Fury walking down the hallway toward the ring looking ominous. He was dressed, all 6-foot-9 of him, in funereal back. Then, suddenly, The Grim Reaper transformed into Captain America. The black was gone.
Beneath it, there was an American flag fashioned into a robe and Top Hat that could have been straight out of Apollo Creed’s closet. It ended, with Fury at the center of the ring, singing I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing. It’s an Aerosmith song. But Fury made it sound like Elvis.
Hey, an Elvis impersonation had to be in there. This is Vegas, after all. And that’s what Fury promised. A show. It wasn’t much more than that. Yes, there was a fight – or at least a facsimile of one – for nearly two full rounds between The Grim Reaper-turned-Captain America and Elvis.
But it was a fight that appears hard to judge, at least in terms of what it means to the heavyweight division. Deontay Wilder will have to wait, probably until early next year. There’s still plenty of time to argue and re-argue all of the possibilities in the proposed rematch. Nothing that in Saturday fight figures to change the outlines of what to expect in Fury-Wilder II.
German challenger Tom Schwarz didn’t do anything to make anybody change any minds. He was there as a prop. He vanished like a prop in what could have been another part of the show. Fury was the magician, making Schwarz vanish within two rounds Saturday night of a bout televised by ESPN+.
“Me key tonight was to enjoy myself,’’ Fury (28-0-1, 20 KOs) said after retaining the lineal heavyweight championship and a purse estimated to be $12,5 million. “I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I did.’’
If the crowd’s enthusiasm was any sign, nearly everybody did, other than probably Schwarz (24-1. 16 KOs) and his trainer. The German corner threw in the towel at 2:54 of the second, not long after a succession of punches dropped Schwarz along the ropes. Schwarz got up. But Fury’s punches kept coming, one after another in a blitz without interruption.
A sure sign of the end was evident in the beginning. Fury immediately began to work his long jab. He developed a rhythm – feint, feint, jab, hook, feint. Then, there was some mocking. Fury stuck out his tongue at Schwarz. He smiled at him. He did just about anything he wanted to.
“What’s next?” said Fury, who then deflected the question to his promoter, Bob Arum. “Bob will tell you we have September 25 or October 5.
“Then ,next year we are going to hold down Deontay Wilder to give me that green (WBC) belt.’’
Jesse Hart wins at light-heavyweight, beating Barrera
Jesse Hart, a former super-middleweight contender, moved up in weight and discarded the former. He’s still a contender, this time at light-heavyweight. Hart (26-2, 21 KOs) beat top-10 contender Sullivan Barrera (22-3, 14 KOs) knocking him down once in the eighth round en route to 99–90, 96-93, 97-92 victory over the Cuban fighter, now a resident of Miami.
“Watch out, cause I’m on my way,” said Hart, a Philadelphia fighter who continues his lifelong pursuit of a major title. ” I hurt my right hand in the seventh. But I’m OK. I think I need just one more fight at 175 to feel completely comfortable at the weight.”
Mikaela Mayer stays unbeaten
Mikaela Mayer stayed unbeaten and undeterred about her hopes for an eventual showdown with Irish star Katie Taylor Saturday with a tough, yet convincing decision over Lizbeth Crespo in a 10-round, 130-pound fight.
Mayer (11-0, 4 KOs), an Olympian from Los Angeles, endured some powerful shots in the early rounds from Crespo (13-5, 3 KOs), who learned how to fight because of domestic abuse while growing up in Argentina. But Mayer employed power, precision and a superior reach to gain control over the final few rounds.
Toledo super-featherweight Albert Bell (15-0, 4 KOs) relied on a three-inch advantage to control distance and tempo in the early rounds, scoring a unanimous decision over Andy Vences (22-1-1, 12 KOs), a San Jose, Calif., fighter whose aggressiveness and power in the later rounds weren’t enough.
UK featherweight Isaac Lowe wins unanimous decision
UK featherweight Isaac Lowe started the fight. Finished it, too.
Lowe (18-0-3, 6 KOs) shoved Duarn Vue (14-2-2, 4 KOs) during a face-t-face pose fro the camera after a staged weigh-in Friday. Punches might have been thrown then if not for 87-year-old Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who rushed across the stage and pulled Vue to one side.
The punches would wait, but 24 hours later Love threw and landed most of them, scoring a unanimous decision over Vue.
Abel Sanchez-trained heavyweight scores overwhelming stoppage
He calls himself the Gladiator, an appropriate nickname for a fighter from a city known for its ancient Colosseum. Rome heavyweight Guido Vianello (4-0, 4 KOs) did everything his nickname demands. The Abel Sanchez-trained scoring three knockdowns of Keenan Hickman (6-4-1, 2 KOs) for a second-round TKO.
First Bell: German heavyweight opens Fury-Schwarz card with a decision win
In front of a matinee crowd of people trying to escape The Strip’s sole-melting temps, a young German heavyweight did what a fellow German hopes to do on the main event.
Peter Kadiru (4-0, 1 KOs), of Hamburg, won.
The 21-year-old Kadiru opened the show at the MGM Grand, scoring a unanimous decision over Houston’s Juan Torres (3-2-1, 1 KO) in a four rounder on an eight-fight card scheduled to end with German Tom Schwarz in an attempt at an upset of lineal heavyweight champ Tyson Fury.
