#5 Tyson Fury vs. #75 Arslanbek Makhmudov +2 other HW fights round-by-round scoring

 Great fight card today: not only Fury vs. Makhmudov, but #18 Justis Huni vs. #94 Frazer Clarke and #25 Jeamie Tshikeva vs. former cruiserweight Richard Riakporhe (19-1).

Fury and Makhmudov are in the ring. Fury looks fat, so does Mak. About 270 vs. 265, big boys.

1. Mak starts aggressive, pushing Fury into the corner, and then into the ropes. Mak bum-rushing again, to little effect. Fury not countering too well to the bum-rushes. Mak gets in one winging shot during a lunge. Hard to judge that, do you give credit for Mak's aggressiveness when it didn't accomplish much? He connected a few times. Mak 10-9
2. Fury opens with jabs. Fury fends off another bum-rush. Fury lets loose with a combo as Mak slows down late in the round. Huge attempt from Mak whiffs. Fury wins that easily. Fury 10-9; 19-19
3. Fury staying outside and jabbing hard, Mak flat-footed. Mak is too tired now. Tries another bum-rush but nothing on it. His strategy was clearly early KO but that becomes less likely each passing moment. Fury doing good work in the clinch. Fury 10-9; Fury 29-28
4. Mak catches Fury with a left on the break early, Fury takes it well. Mak giving everything he's got in this round I think. This is his last gasp unless he changes the fight's trajectory. HUGE jab by Fury snaps Mak's head back. Fury 10-9; 39-37
5. Mak's corner telling him to not let Fury jab. Not sure how he does that. Tyson jabbing and hitting the body then jumping into the clinch. Mak whiffs on two huge overhands. Fury scoring in the clinch. Mak is holding and tired. Fury 10-9; 49-46
6. Fury calling for the uppercut between rounds, let's see if he does it. There's one to the body. Bum-rush from Mak. Fury jabbing from distance, Mak is too tired to do anything other than rush in once or twice a round. Fury jabbing like Ali circling Norton, jabbing from southpaw now. Fury 10-9; 59-55
7. More of the same until Mak gets a good right hand counter in, and he follows up, then he clinches instead of doing more, probably too tired. Mak's best round since the first round but Fury takes that one again, 10-9; Fury 69-64
8. Fury unloads early with a combo. Mixes in a few uppercuts and dodges most of Mak's attempts but not all. Fury catches Mak entering. Mak counter to the body stuns Fury for just a second. But Fury goes right back to work. Fury 10-9; 79-73
9. Uneventful first half of the round. Mak gets in a right on the way to the clinch. Fury clips Mak on another entry and knocks his mouthpiece out. Good body shot by Fury late. Fury 10-9; 89-82
10. Body shots by Fury. Fury holding around the head and uppercutting to the body. Mak's mouthpiece is out again, fight stopped for it to be reinstalled. Fury tries to end it on restart with big shot, but it isn't enough. More uppercuts. Another one. Fury multiple shots and Mak slips. Fury picks it up again. More uppercuts. Fury 10-9; Fury 99-91
11. Corner calls for the KO, Fury argues back he's "boxing" which is true. Mak obviously needs a KO of his own. Fury working Mak over, Mak's only counter whiffs. More Fury uppercuts. Two huge winging hooks by Mak miss one right after the other. Fury puts Mak in the corner and unloads until the bell. Fury 10-9; 109-100
12. Fighters hug in the middle. Fury working for the stoppage but Mak is pretty unmovable. The whole round is Fury clubbing Mak and Mak clinching, staying alive, occasional home run shot. Fury 10-9; Fury 119-109

I have it 119-109, so that's what the judges should say. Maybe a 120-108 and 118-110 bracketing it, but that's about the entirety of the realistic scoring that I can fathom.

Judges: 120-108, 120-108, 119-109 for Fury

That's fair, but this was an easy fight to score. The first round was questionable. Nothing else really was. 

Fury probably stays at #5 but most importantly his inactivity decline (from December 2022) stops. And Fury vs. Joshua will probably be next.

Undercard fights:

#25 Jeamie Tshikeva (TKV) vs. Richard Riakporhe, a former cruiserweight who recently switched to HW but is unrated by SportsRatings. Beating TKV would put him in the top 25 right away.

I'm going to use TKV and RR in the round-by-round. 12 round fight for the British HW title.

1. RR more solid built but TKV the heavier fighter. Not much action before the fighters wrestle each other to the ground mid-round in a big collapse. TKV clinching a lot. Not much was done until very end RR 1-2 combo. That, along with TKV's constant clinching, gives an uneventful round to RR 10-9.
2. TKV comes out jabbing. Good jabs by RR. Jabs are bloodying TKV's nose. Ref talking to both fighters for some reason, I guess the clinching? Uppercut by RR. They are doing a lot of wrestling in the clinch. Decent hook by TKV. RR 10-9; 20-18.
3. TKV throwing and clinching is his strategy now. RR hits him square mid-round, ref gives TKV and RR a talk again about clinches. Ref is quickly stopping the clinches now, but fighters taking their time obeying. Not really enough in that round to call a winner, unless I penalizeTKV for the clinches, but RR isn't avoiding the wrestling part of it. 10-10; RR 30-28
4. TKV's jab not getting through RR's guard. Clinch again and it looks like TKV did a head-butt. Point taken off TKV for the head-butt. Looks like he did two of them, the one against the ropes was the one that got the point taken. TKV the more active fighter now, the head-butts might have worked. Big right by RR. I'll give that another 10-10, with the point deduction; RR 40-37
5. Not much for the first minute until RR gets an ear-shot on TKV, putting him on the canvas. TKV is up but unsteady and clinching. Big body and uppercut from RR, TKV tries to take him down but tumbles to the ground. Huge punches from RR, ref stops it, probably a bit early. Richard Riakporhe TKO 5

Riakporhe gets his first rated HW win and will debut on our May Top 100 in the top 20. Tshikeva will drop from #25 to just outside the top 50. At 235 Riakporhe doesn't look huge, still has a skinny build but is very solid and looks comfortable in the ring against a bigger fighter. Calls out Wardley vs. Dubois winner, which seems a bit too soon, but also #88 Johnny Fisher which should be easy to make.

Huni vs. Clarke is about to start. Both fighters took on Fabio Wardley, with both losing to him recently by KO. 10 round fight.

1. Clarke (259) looks a lot bigger than Huni (246). Clarke jabbing heavy. Good hook by Clarke, Huni is active too near the end of the round. Huni jabbing. Both heavy handed. Huni did better at the end but I give it to Clarke 10-9
2. Very active fight. Great jab and hook by Huni mid-round. Huni getting to the jab faster. Pace slows near the end. Huni 10-9; 19-19 
3. Pace is back up early. Good long shot by Clarke outstretching his arm. This is like rock'm sock'm robots, they're toe to toe. Good uppercut by Huni and another. Both have aggressive intent. Lunging jab and uppercut by Huni. Combo by Huni but Clarke counters. Closer round than the announcers called it but Huni gets it again 10-9; Huni 29-28
4. Fighters eager to get to round 4. But they start out more measured, with feignts. Halfway through round not a lot of great connects, Huni whiffs on a hook, near low-blow. Good exchange, both are getting hurt. Clarke connects with hooks and has him on the ropes, Huni survives the round. Clarke 10-9; 38-38
5. Clarke has new life, let's see if he can follow up. Huni starts with good right hook. Active round seems about even so far halfway through. Clarke with uppercut and jab. Huni body shot. Another one. Near low blow stops the action with 10 seconds left, Clarke didn't seem to care. Even round, this is anyone's fight. 10-10; 48-48
6. Good jabs from Clarke. Body shots from Huni. Uppercut and body. Huni doing well mid-round. Clarke not letting it go as much. Huni by far the more active. Good counters from Clarke, lets it go at the end but not enough to win the round. Huni 10-9; 58-57.
7. Clarke pushes Huni back. Ref stops action for Huni's mouthpiece. Great exchanges in mid-ring at mid-round. 2 uppercuts land for Huni but they aren't big. Another close round. Clarke has been more aggressive and active this round, moving forward more. Clarke 10-9; 67-67
8. Huni dodging better per his corner's advice, getting in and getting out instead of last round's toe-to-toe. Two good shots by Clarke, and good ones by Huni too. Uppercut by Clarke. Even before last minute, Huni is staying close again. Good work by Huni late, Clarke a bit tired. Huni 10-9; 77-76
9. Huni jumps in quickly, Clarke wants to mix it up too, wow they are throwing heavy toe-to-toe. Great counter by Clarke after Huni body shot. Huge right by Huni by Clarke took it just fine. Huni dodging against the ropes. Very good round, and pretty even. 10-10; Huni 87-86
10. Final round. Great action. Huge leather thrown by both. Huni ducking and moving now. Last minute now. Huni against the ropes, slipping punches like Ali. Huni body shots and slips away. Huni didn't get hit much at all the 2nd half of the round. Huni 10-9; Huni 97-95

Very close fight, great action throughout. With two 10-10 rounds, my scorecards are 95-95, 96-94, and 97-93, Huni by majority decision.

Judges cards: 95-95, 96-94, 96-94 for Huni.

The cards almost exactly matched my scorecards, without the pro-Huni slant on card 3. Very close fight but scored well by the judges, in my opinion.

Clarke will fall out of my Top 100, while Huni will make a small move up, maybe to #17. More importantly his inactive decline will stop; his last rated win was in late 2024.