Fury stops Wilder in heavyweight thriller
After three fights featuring nine combined knockdowns and a wealth of unforgettable moments, Tyson Fury finally ended his epic heavyweight rivalry with Deontay Wilder with one last valedictory punch.
Fury got up from the canvas twice in the fourth round and eventually stopped Wilder with a devastating right hand in the 11th round, retaining his WBC title Saturday night in the thrilling conclusion to a superlative boxing trilogy.
Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) finished Wilder for the second straight time in their three bouts, but only after a back-and-forth event featuring five combined knockdowns and several apparent moments of imminent defeat for both men. Wilder ultimately ended up face down on the canvas at 1:10 of the 11th round, after a chopping right hook fired from high in the air by the 6-foot-9 Fury.
“It was a great fight,” said Fury, the sport’s lineal heavyweight champion and a former unified world champ. “It was worthy of any trilogy in the history of the sport. He’s a top fighter, and he gave me a real (test) tonight.”
Wilder (42-2-1) was knocked down in the third round and appeared to be on his way out, but he improbably rallied to knock down Fury twice in the final minutes of the fourth. The British champion was profoundly shaken, but he also gathered himself and fought on.
“He caught me twice in the fourth round, but I was never thinking, ‘Oh, this is over,’” Fury said. “He shook me, put me down, but that’s boxing, and that’s life as well. It’s not how many times you get knocked down. You’ve got to keep fighting and keep moving forward.”
Fury knocked down Wilder again with a concussive right hand midway through the 10th, but Wilder recovered and even stunned Fury in the final seconds of the round.
Fury persevered - and after the referee jumped in to wave it off in the 11th, Fury climbed onto the ropes in weary celebration before a frenzied crowd of 15,820 at T-Mobile Arena on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip.
The fight likely concluded one of the most memorable rivalries in recent boxing history - a trilogy defined by two remarkable displays of pugilistic tenacity. Fury said the rivalry is “done now, done for good”.
Any three-fight series is a rarity in the fractured modern sport, but Fury and Wilder brought out the best in each other through a rivalry spanning nearly three calendar years.
They met first in late 2018 in downtown Los Angeles, where Wilder knocked down Fury twice in the late rounds of an excellent fight otherwise controlled by Fury. The second knockdown in the 12th round left Fury flat on his back and motionless while Wilder celebrated, but Fury improbably rose and reached the bell in a bout judged a split draw.
The second fight was in Las Vegas in February 2020, and Fury’s dominance was much clearer. The British champ battered Wilder until the seventh round, when Wilder’s corner threw in the towel on a onesided victory and Fury claimed Wilder’s WBC belt.