I admit I was pulling for a Deontay Wilder knockout. In the past couple of years I found a lot more to admire and enjoy in a Wilder fight than in a Fury fight. He won me over by fighting Wilder the first time, impressing me with his boxing skills, much less fraidy-cat than he was with Klitschko, but equally elusive. Weird for a big man. A good weird that is.

But then he lost me by fight first Schwartz then Wallin, two fake-boxing farces unworthy of a man claiming the lineal championship. (And by the way, thank God he’s won it back, because I was getting tired of yelling at my TV “He’s not the lineal champ!” every time his name came up.)

And boy, you could see it coming a mile away. In their dressing rooms Fury was smiling and laughing, kicking back on a big cushy sofa while Wilder was on the floor, looking like he was performing some Vulcan ritual to relieve constipation. That spoke volumes to me. I didn’t want to admit it. I even remarked that Tony Thompson looked pretty relaxed before Klitschko knocked him out. But I saw what you saw, Wilder looked scared, anxious. Fury looked relaxed and happy, like he was attending a sunday barbecue instead of a heavyweight title fight. He was brimming with confidence.

In all sports, psychology is important, perhaps in none more so than in boxing. It doesn’t pay to be scared of your opponent. I can’t think of a single instance where that paid off. Oh sure, Foreman said he was scared of Frazier, but you couldn’t prove it by me. He sure didn’t look scared.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to say anything derogatory about Wilder’s cojones. He showed up, he engaged, he threw punches. But, from the get-go Fury had him backing up. His behavior in the dressing room made it seem like he knew that’s what Fury would do. He didn’t like it. He looked perplexed.

Then, shades of Joshua vs. Ruiz, he got hit in the ear in the third round, and it ruined him.

(I said last night that was the first time he’d been knocked down, but that wasn’t right. He had been knocked down once before, early in his career.)

And shades of Joshua vs Ruiz II, Fury reinvented himself as Joshua had done, presented himself as someone else, a seek-and-destroy fighter like Vitali Klitschko or Adam Kownacki. And he did a beautiful job of it. It was a most impressive ass-kicking.

It saddened me to hear that he only plans to fight twice more, and one of those fights will be MMA. I mean I endorse the idea of a guy retiring before he gets mangled too bad. But this guy looks like he has the goods to stay at the top for a long time, and I like that too. I hope he changes his mind and hangs around for a couple more years.

I also sincerely hope that Wilder passes on the immediate rematch. I would much rather watch him fight someone else to rebuild his credibility. Fighters like White, Kownacki, or Big Baby Miller come to mind.

So I will have to retire the moniker “Tosser King” in referring to him. He is now the legitimate lineal champ. That’s what I will call him.