Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder: Tyson Fury Caps Wild Trilogy With Late Knockout of Deontay Wilder (Published 2021) (2024)

Fury’s knockout ended the fight and also a trilogy atop the sport.

Wilder’s body collapsed limp into the center of the ring and the referee mercifully ended the bout. Fury raised his hands in victory as he walked to his corner knowing that he had retained the World Boxing Council heavyweight belt, which he had stripped from the same man so long ago when to Americans the coronavirus seemed like a distant problem on the other side of the world.

There are no moral victories, but to Wilder’s credit, he competed in a thrilling fight. Unlike in their previous meeting in February 2020, Wilder forced Fury into the later rounds, sapping his energy and knocking him down twice. He handled the clinch of the larger man well in the beginning, too.

Fury, though, withstood the damage and also knocked Wilder down two times before the knockout. In Round 10, Wilder threw a punch, missed and Fury connected with a counter right, sending Wilder to the canvas.

Though Wilder recovered, it clearly hurt him heading into the next round, leading to the climatic finish.

“I always said I was the best in the world and he was the second best,” Fury said. “Don’t ever doubt me. When the chips are down, I will always deliver.”

The rubber match’s result should streamline the heavyweight division, which has stalled for months after the pandemic and the court system complicated this trilogy. Fury most likely will compete against the winner of the fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua in a title unification bout. Usyk defeated Joshua via unanimous decision last month, and Joshua’s promoter told ESPN that the fighter had exercised his rematch clause.

Fury and Joshua had signed a two-fight deal in March, but an arbitrator ruled that Fury had to complete the trifecta with Wilder. The two also fought to a draw in 2018.

The third fight had been scheduled for July, but Fury and members of his camp tested positive for the coronavirus, postponing the bout until Saturday. In a locker room interview before the fight, Fury said he had contracted the virus twice.

Wilder bulked up to 238 pounds, the largest he ever weighed for his professional career. He fired his former trainer, Mark Breland and hired Malik Scott, a boxer whom he defeated in 2014, to diversify his approach.

In his last clash with Fury, Wilder said the 40-pound costume he wore weakened his legs. On Saturday, he walked with a minimalist (by his standards) robe. None of those factors saved him, though, from experiencing his second loss, and to the same person.

He will always be remembered as the man who defended his heavyweight belt 10 times, and as a powerful knockout artist. But Fury left no lingering questions and completed this trilogy in a conclusive fashion. The 15,820 spectators in T-Mobile Arena believed it. So did those who watched it on pay-per-view. Like it or not, Wilder will be forced to, as well.

“I did my best but it wasn’t good enough tonight,” Wilder said.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Tyson Fury finished the show in the 11th round with a decisive knockout.

Until then, Fury, 6-foot-9 and 277 pounds, traded heavy punches with the 6-foot-7, 238-pound Wilder from close and long range. Wilder opened the fight concentrating on Fury’s body, and spearing him with jabs. Fury pressed forward, mauling, wrestling and landing clean rights and lefts.

Fury dropped Wilder in the third. Wilder decked Fury twice in the fourth. Fury knocked Wilder down again midway through Round 10, but finished the round in retreat as Wilder hammered him with big right hands.

Both fighters looked exhausted after setting a pace that seemed too hot to last 12 rounds. Fury ended it in the 11th, with a series of heavy right hands.

“I always said I’m the best in the world and he’s the second best,” Fury said in an in-ring interview.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

There are easily five rounds at least that could go either way — if this even gets to the poor judges.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Another sign was his corner telling him to “wake … up” with an expletive thrown in for good measure before Round 7.

Textbook definition right there of “saved by the bell.”

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Deontay Wilder’s costume is lighter. Fury’s entrance is zanier.

For the last fight, Wilder wore a jewel-encrusted suit that resembled a knight’s armor accented with black skulls. He wore a mask which lit up in red near his eyes and a crown. The set was said to cost $40,000.

He wore similar costumes in the past. In November 2019, he wore a lighter garb with slits to expose his chest with white-and-gold accented shoulder spikes, complete with a mask and crown.

In 2018, before his first fight against Wilder, he wore a similar mask and crown, but diverted from the armor by wearing a feathered robe.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Fury’s troll game is unmatched.

Frank Sanchez wins in a battle among undefeated fighters.

Sanchez continued to be the aggressor through the end of the bout.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Adding to the drama of Wilder-Fury is numerous setbacks.

The grudge match comes after months of setbacks, delays and bureaucracy.

Wilder was upset when he lost the last fight to Fury, their second, in February 2020. Fury was dominant and by the seventh round, Wilder’s trainer, Mark Breland, saw the damage on his fighter’s body and threw in the towel.

Wilder immediately rejected the decision by his corner.

“I just wish that my corner would have let me go out on my shield,” Wilder said in the ring.

He exercised a rematch clause for a third bout, and blamed his bad performance on a bevy of unsupported rationalizations. He claimed the costume he wore while entering the ring — a 40-pound skull-themed knight armor set intended to note Black History Month — weakened his legs. He also accused Fury, without evidence, of fighting with tampered gloves.

“Maybe if you’d come out with one of these excuses, which would have been believable, but not 50 of them, come on,” Fury said. “What it tells me is that he’s a weak, mental little person who I am going to knock out on Saturday night.”

The pandemic and failed negotiations affected the third fight’s timing, and Fury began talking with another heavyweight, Anthony Joshua, and in March signed a two-fight deal to unify their titles. But an arbitrator ruled in May that Fury had to fight Wilder by Sept. 15. The bout was then slated for July, but Fury and members of his team tested positive for the virus, postponing the event until now.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Helenius led big, then won because of Kownacki’s desperate low blows.

The shots didn’t count, naturally. They bought Kownacki a few minutes to regroup, and a stern warning from the referee, but they didn’t alter the rhythm of the fight. Kownacki, who was undefeated before Helenius knocked him out in their first meeting, in March of 2020, is a volume puncher who dialed back his output hoping to tighten his defense.

It didn’t work against Helenius, a 6-foot-7 contender from Finland. Helenius landed jabs, right hands and body punches, and forced referee Celestino Ruiz to consider stopping the fight in Round 5.

Midway through the sixth, another low blow provided the pretense. Ruiz stopped the fight. Helenius celebrated, and Kownacki looked relieved.

Helenius, who served as Deontay Wilder’s main sparring partner, is now 31-3 with 19 knockouts.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Jared Anderson closed his fight in the second round.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Edgar Berlanga got a unanimous decision over Marcelo Esteban Coceres.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Wilder has been known for wearing a costume, which didn’t go well last time.

Wilder is completing a trilogy of fights with Tyson Fury, the 6-foot-9 Englishman who defeated Wilder via technical knockout in February 2020. Wilder, 35, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., created a litany of unsubstantiated reasons for suffering the first loss of his career.

One of them, he claimed, was that the extravagant 40-pound costume he wore into the ring weakened his legs.

That night, he wore a jewel-encrusted suit that resembled a knight’s armor accented with black skulls. He wore a mask which lit up in red near his eyes and a crown. The set was said to cost $40,000.

He wore similar costumes in the past. In November 2019, he wore a lighter garb with slits to expose his chest with white-and-gold accented shoulder spikes, complete with a mask and crown.

In 2018, before his first fight against Wilder, he wore a similar mask and crown, but diverted from the armor by wearing a feathered robe.

And don’t expect him to forgo the exotic attire this time even after the debacle last February. The designers of Wilder’s suit told TMZ that his get-up this time around will be “significantly lighter.”

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Wilder’s previous loss to Fury was the first of his career.

For much of the fight in February 2020, Fury stalked Wilder down, setting in aggressive pace and landing clean blows. Fury weighed 273 pounds, and he used that 43-pound advantage on the scale effectively and clinched with Wilder, forcing him to carry his weight. He knocked Wilder down in the third and fifth rounds. By the seventh, Wilder’s trainer, Mark Breland, threw in a white towel. The referee stopped the contest and Fury won via technical knockout.

After changing his trainer, proclaiming a litany of excuses for his loss and winning an arbitration case to force Fury to fight him, Wilder now has an opportunity to correct his mistakes.