At the Staples Center, where LeBron James calls home for the next four seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury fought to a draw.
While Wilder knocked down Fury twice including in the 12th round, the latter outboxed the former for longer stretches of the bout.
In the second-biggest fight of the year after Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin 2, the Staples Center crowd certainly got their money’s worth.
As for James who has previously attended the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor match, he had the ultimate praise for the heavyweight world championship fight:
Man that was the funniest/craziest fight I’ve ever seen in my life. What the H-E-???????? just happened?!?!?!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) December 2, 2018
The three judges scored the fight 115-111 Wilder, 114-112 Fury, and 113-113. With there being a rematch clause, both fighters have already expressed interest as they remain undefeated and retained their respective belts.
As Staples Center hosts numerous events every year, the Lakers are starting to establish a homecourt advantage for the first time in five seasons. With James’ arrival in free agency, they are currently 8-4 at home and defeated the Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks to begin their four-game homestand.
With the Lakers hosting the Phoenix Suns next, they showed great fight in their recent comeback win, but need to dominate the worst team in the league right now.