Tyson Fury needed to dance with the most dangerous man in heavyweight boxing three times, with the third outing the most legendary, to finally put the rivalry to bed.
Fury knocked out Deontay Wilder in the eleventh round of their Las Vegas epic; a fight that saw both fighters knocked down multiple times before the WBC champion of the world found the killer blow.
A third fight that many in the boxing world didn’t want to see — due to the ease in which Fury won the second — was ultimately the best heavyweight war we’ve seen in a very long time.
Despite coming out with a calculated aggression, Wilder hit the deck in the third, and looked certain for another early defeat.
Then, it was Fury’s turn to taste canvas; dropping twice in the fourth round as the American found a home for that right hand that has ended so many fights.
But like he did in their classic first go-around back in 2018, Fury got up. And in the middle rounds, was able to assert himself in the fight.
Wilder looked gassed, but always one punch away from flipping the script. The hard-hitting former champion of the world ate right hand after right hand from Fury, and answered with his own bombs, before it eventually became too much.
Fury sent Wilder crashing back to the canvas in the 10th round.
But that wasn’t the end, as Wilder, who wanted to go out on his shield in the sequel, somehow got back to his feet.
No, the end came in the 11th as a looping Fury right hand with Wilder against the ropes saw the tall American timber finally topple as referee Russell Mora waved off the fight.
Fury was ahead on the scorecards 95-91 x 2, 94-92.
The two heavyweights fought to a bruising draw in their first fight in Los Angeles in 2018, when Fury came back from the dead.
Fury then defeated Wilder in February last year via a seventh-round knockout that ended Wilder’s five-year reign as WBC champion.
SOURCE: FOX SPORTS