Tyson Fury completed one of the greatest comebacks in modern sports history on Saturday night when he knocked out Deontay Wilder in the seventh round to add the WBC’s version of the world heavyweight championship to his own lineal claim to the title.
The Gypsy King made good on his promise to go for a knockout in the hotly anticipated rematch against a man regarded as boxing’s most dangerous puncher. He came forward from the opening bell, dropped the champion for the first time in a decade with a right hand to the temple in the third round, then again with a clubbing left to the body in the fifth.
By the sixth, Wilder was bleeding from his left ear, his legs were completely gone and he appeared unable to defend himself as Fury picked him apart. When referee Kenny Bayless waved it off at the 1:56 mark of the seventh after Wilder’s corner threw in the towel, it set off scenes of pandemonium among the sold-out crowd of 15,816 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“I hit him with a clean right that dropped him and he got back up,” said Fury, who landed 82 of 267 punches (30.7%), compared to 34 of 141 for Wilder (24.1%) according to Compubox’s punch statistics. “He is a warrior. He will be back. He will be champion again.”
The conventional wisdom suggested that Fury would have been well-suited to reprise the tactics from their inconclusive first encounter 15 months ago, when he spent most of the evening boxing Wilder’s ears off with erratic feints, a stubbornly effective jab and deft upper-body movement belying his towering 6ft 9in frame. Even after suffering knockdowns in the ninth and 12th rounds, the latter of which left him seemingly unconscious on descent, Fury came off the floor each time and finished the round coming forward.
For Saturday’s rematch, Fury replaced Ben Davison, the astute young trainer who marshaled his astonishing comeback from a personal abyss, with the Kronk Gym alumnus SugarHill Steward. He deliberately packed on extra weight, eating six meals and drinking eight litres of water daily in search of a size advantage against the lighter American, coming in at 273lb at Friday’s weigh-in compared to Wilder’s career-high 231lb.
The Briton also insisted he would be more offensively minded for the rematch, which he started as a slight underdog with the bookmakers. But the only thing you know about Fury is you never know.
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) sprung from his corner at the opening bell and began pumping jabs at the challenger’s head while circling to his left, but Fury slipped most of the American’s efforts with ease. Wilder appeared slower then in their first meeting, as if compromised by the extra weight.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) appeared even more confident to start the third, throwing more punches in combination as Wilder’s output waned. That’s when Fury dropped Wilder with a right hand to the temple. It was the only American’s second knockdown as a professional and the first since he was floored by journeyman Harold Sconiers – some 30 fights and nearly 10 years ago.
By now Wilder, whose bleeding left ear suggested a damaged eardrum, was completely out of sorts as he looked to land the right hand to the point of parody. By the fifth, his legs were gone and he was reduced to crude, lunging attacks that Fury could see from miles away. When Fury sent him to the canvas for a second time with a clubbing left to the body, you began to wonder when the referee would intervene.
The challenger poured on the punishment in the sixth, scoring from the outside and in-fighting beautifully, pounding away with hooks and uppercuts to the head and body. Wilder was still bleeding from his left ear and found himself in full retreat when he wasn’t pinned against the ropes.
Wilder was gracious in defeat. “The best man won tonight … You just take it for what it is. I can make no excuses tonight. I had a lot of complications. But we’ll come back stronger next time around,” he said. “This is what big-time boxing is all about, the best must fight the best. I appreciate all the fans that came out and supported the show, and I hope that everyone gets home safely.”
The 31-year-old from Manchester has now captured WBC’s version of the long-fractured heavyweight championship after winning the WBA, WBO and IBF titles in 2015 when he ended Wladimir Klitschko’s decade long reign in Düsseldorf.
Fury never lost those belts in the ring, instead surrendering them into the heavyweight ether amid a 31-month layoff, where they have since been absorbed by Britain’s Anthony Joshua. His return to the summit of boxing’s prestige division on Saturday night seemed unthinkable at rock bottom, when he ballooned to 400lbs and contemplated taking his own life.
Now a summit meeting between Fury and Joshua to unite all four titles and crown an undisputed heavyweight champion for the first time since Lennox Lewis looms as perhaps the richest fight in boxing history – that is, if Wilder doesn’t exercise his option for a immediate rematch.
