Getty Tyson Fury
Tyson Fury dominated and stopped Deontay Wilder in the 7th round on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Fury, 31, from Manchester, U.K., completely outclassed the game Wilder, 34, from Tuscaloosa, Ala., to retain his lineal heavyweight championship and win Wilder’s WBC title.
Additionally, Fury won the heavyweight titles tracked by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Ranking Board to solidify the fighter as the best heavyweight boxer in the world.
Fury knocked down Wilder twice in the bout. The first knockdown came in the 3rd round. The next came in the 5th. At 1:39 of the 7th, the fight was finally stopped when it became clear Wilder had nothing to offer in return.
Fury improved to 23-0-1. Wilder fell to 42-1-1.
Complete Recap of Fury’s Stunning Victory
The ceremonial splendor of Wilder vs. Fury 2 was a sight to behold, hearkening back to great heavyweight championship fights of yesteryear. But after Fury was carried into the ring like a king, and once the masked Wilder had finished stalking his way toward his opponent like a predator, the fight was on.
Fury sprinted to the center of the ring to start the bout forcing the American backward. Fury feinted and probed Wilder with hard jabs. Wilder responded with his patented right hand. But Fury mostly made him miss and was aggressive for the rest of the set with solid lefts and rights.
Fury started the 2nd round as the aggressor. His long jabs and hooks were always forcing Wilder backward. Wilder landed a counter here or there, but Fury’s aggressiveness and work rate were impressive.
The 3rd round saw Fury up the ante with the jabs, and he landed a hard right hand behind one that stunned Wilder. The American responded with his own right, but Fury’s punches seemed better placed and were thrown from more unique angles. Fury kept up the pressure over the next two minutes, then exploded with a one-two combination that knocked Wilder down with less than 30 seconds in the round. Wilder’s legs weren’t under him at all, so he went down again after trying to hold on to Fury but it was ruled not to come from a punch.
The fighters were warned by the referee for roughhousing in the 4th round, but Fury kept stalking Wilder from behind a long jab, sometimes adding a hooking form of that same punch that Wilder just couldn’t see. But the tough American ate those, along with a digging body blow, and offered his own punches in response, even if they didn’t quite do the same kind of damage.
Fury hurt Wilder to start the 5th with a hard one-two combination. Wilder held on to save himself from going down, but Fury kept bringing the action. Almost halfway through the round, Fury landed a clean body punch that put Wilder down again. Wilder got back to his feet, but he was visibly hurt and tired. Now Fury was swinging for the knockout for sure.
Referee Kenny Bayless inexplicably broke the action in the 5th as Fury was mauling Wilder in the corner. He deducted a point from Fury in what could only be explained as a huge gaffe. Still, that wouldn’t stop Fury from shocking the world.
Fury herded WIlder into the corner again in the 6th. Wilder was tired, hurt and bleeding, and Fury was making it all worse. Still, the hard puncher from Alabama continued throwing bombs. Fury smartly kept one eye on Wilder’s big right hands and worked his own hard punches in behind them to soften Wilder up even more.
Fury was dominating the 7th round with clean and accurate punches, and Wilder’s corner had finally seen enough. The fight was stopped after Wilder’s trainer threw in the towel, and Fury was declared the TKO winner.
Heavyweights Fought to Controversial Draw in 2018
Wilder and Fury fought to a controversial split draw in December 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. While Fury largely outboxed the American power puncher for the majority of the fight, Wilder scored two knockdowns late, once in the 9th and again in the 12th, to knot the judges at ringside all three ways.
Both fighters scored two wins apiece after. Wilder knocked out Dominic Breazeale in just one round in May 2018 and followed that impressive effort up by stopping Luis Oritz in the 7th round in a rematch six months later.
Fury also won both of his fights. He beat Tom Schwarz in June 2019 by 2nd round stoppage and earned a hard-fought victory over Otto Wallin three months later after suffering a huge gash over his right eye that required 47 stitches.
Fury’s Huge Win Might Lead to Another Massive Fight
While the first Wilder-Fury bout was huge, the second one was even bigger. It was the first joint boxing pay-per-view event offered by Fox Sports and ESPN, and the stakes seemed to grow even greater as fight night finally drew near. In fact, Wilder-Fury 2 broke the live gate record for a heavyweight boxing match in Las Vegas, breaking the all-time record set back in 1999 for the Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield rematch.
Now, Fury is set up for an even bigger fight later this year or early next. The stunning win earned Fury only pieces of the overcomplicated heavyweight championship puzzle. Anthony Joshua holds the rest of them. The 30-year-old from England won his IBF, WBA and WBO titles back from Andy Ruiz in December 2019.
The heavyweight championship superfight between Fury and Joshua would crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion in boxing since Lewis defeated Holyfield in 1999.
Regardless, Fury defeating Wilder is such a stunning fashion on Saturday night in Las Vegas made clear that Fury is the best heavyweight in the world today.
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