It is unquestionably the biggest fight of the year. After their first epic encounter ended in a draw and required the second which saw Tyson Fury come out on top, this would either be redemption for Deontay Wilder, or Tyson’s chance to put to bed any doubts in fans minds.
Deontay changed up his corner and clearly had a new game plan tonight. In the early rounds Wilder connected with lots of body shots, but wasn’t able to develop too much in terms of making the Gypsy King drop his Guard.
That isn’t to say that neither man got many good shots in as they both did, but we did frequently end up with the competitors locked up and the ref needing to break them apart.
It was Fury who managed to get the first knockdown of the fight, although Wilder came back in the following rounds and knocked Fury down twice.
Both men clearly left everything they had in the ring and both showed moments where you could feel that the right combination would end it.
As it was it was Tyson Fury who was able to win out with a knockout punch in the 11th round that the referee didn’t even count on and called an instant TKO.
The drama between the two didn’t quite end as Fury approached Wilder’s corner, and they spoke momentarily. When interviewed after the fight Fury said that Wilder had said he didn’t want to show sportsmanship, and Fury called his opponent a sore loser and a coward for this. This could still be a sign of unfinished business between the two heavyweights, but with two consecutive wins on the books it will be hard for Wilder to make the case for another rematch.
This was a classic fight which more than lived up to the hype and will also take their trilogy of bouts up to legendary status which within time could be the modern day equivalent to the trilogy of Ali and Fraser.
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