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On This Day: Tyson Fury brutally knocks out Deontay Wilder to end epic rivalry
Trilogies in boxing are a rarity – when two fighters are so well-matched in style and skillset that one fight simply cannot adequately separate them from one another.
Throughout the years, there have been some classic heavyweight trilogies that defined an era of the division, Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier, Riddick Bowe vs Evander Holyfield and the most contemporary example – Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder.
Fury and Wilder shared the ring for three classic fights that drastically changed the course of the heavyweight division between 2018 and 2021.
Today marks four years since Fury and Wilder faced off one final time to bring an epic conclusion to their bitter three-year rivalry.
History of the rivalry
After becoming the unified heavyweight champion by beating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, Fury’s life changed drastically, losing all motivation and having public struggles with mental health and addiction.
Fury vacated his belts and disappeared for three years before he decided it was time to make a return to the ring, with the added motivation of Wilder saying that he would knock him out.
The 'Gypsy King' made an amazing transformation from nearly 400lbs back to his fighting weight in 2018 and took two warm-up fights against Sefer Seferi and Francesco Pianteta to dust off the cobwebs.
Fury and Wilder had been circling each other longer than most might think, as Wilder, 10 months before Fury toppled Klitschko, won the WBC world title against Bermane Stiverne.
By 2018, Wilder had defended his green and gold belt seven times, including a career-best win over Luis Ortiz in March and had become one of the most feared punchers in the division despite his less-than-textbook technical skills.
Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images
The first fight
Fury was clearly the more talented boxer, dancing and feinting his way around the ring, looking to land fast and sharp combinations before making an even quicker exit to avoid the fight-ending shots coming back from Wilder.
This strategy seemed to be successful with Fury boxing himself out to a comfortable lead through the first two-thirds of the fight.
But as the pace began to slow, so did Fury’s feet, and he found himself in a corner in the ninth round. Wilder, seeing a stationary target for the first time, pounced on Fury, landing a four-shot combination that dropped the Brit and buoyed Wilder’s confidence.
Fury showed no ill-effects from the knockdown and picked up exactly where he left off, until one of the most dramatic moments in modern heavyweight history.
All Fury had to do was survive the final round, but he admitted after the fight that he wanted the knockout, and he got caught by a right hand-left hook combination.
“The Bronze Bomber’ celebrated in the corner as Fury lay sprawled on the canvas, but as the celebrations continued, Wilder caught something in his peripheral vision.
Fury began to stir, and almost as if someone had electrocuted him, he jumped up and seemed to have all of his faculties.
The fight ended a split draw after Fury took the fight back to Wilder following the knockdown in a shocking move – putting his hands behind his back and taunting him.
Fury remarked after the fight: “You can’t go swimming and not get wet.”
The rematch
The second fight is the least memorable of the three, in terms of drama. But what it lacked in drama it more than made up for in domination.
Due to co-promotion complications, the rematch would not take place until two years later, and both men had two fights in between to keep busy.
Fury defeated Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin in the interim, and Wilder defended his belt against Dominic Brezeale and Luis Ortiz for a second time.
At the weigh-ins, it became abundantly clear that Fury had made a strategy adjustment under his new trainer SugarHill Steward – weighing in at 272 lbs, 17lbs heavier than the first fight.
Fury dominated from the outset, taking the centre of the ring and landing clubbing blows in stark contrast to his fast twitchy style in the first fight.
Wilder got dropped by a right hand to the temple in the third round that would spell the end of his competitiveness in the fight as he looked visibly disorientated and had blood streaming from his ear.
In the fifth round, Fury’s size and weight advantage was taking hold as he forced Wilder onto the back foot, where he had never had to box before.
He got dropped again in the fifth round and showed true heart to rise to his feet, but was offering nothing in the way of getting back into the fight, and the end was near.
Halfway through the seventh round, Wilder was trapped in a corner and Fury was laying into him – which forced Wilder’s corner to throw in the towel and crown Fury the WBC heavyweight champion in a brutal display that no one was expecting.
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The trilogy
After the dominant display from Fury in the rematch, there were no calls for there to be a third fight and Fury entered negotiations with Anthony Joshua for a groundbreaking all-British undisputed heavyweight title fight.
But behind the scenes, Wilder had entered legal arbitration over his contractual right to a rematch as the former champion, and just as it seemed an announcement for Fury vs Joshua was imminent the court ruled in favour of Wilder, stopping the undisputed fight from happening.
After a delay due to Fury testing positive for COVID-19, the fight was rescheduled for October 9, and Fury entered as the heavy favourite.
Both men weighed a career heaviest ahead of the fight, Fury weighed 277lbs and Wilder 238lbs.
Wilder asserted himself in the early goings, landing intelligent jabs to the body that gave Fury something more to think about than the American’s right hand.
Having established himself in the fight, Wilder gained confidence, but Fury responded in the third round by landing a looping right hand to Wilder’s temple, followed up by an uppercut in the clinch that put Wilder on the canvas.
Wilder survived the round, and as Fury came into the fourth round he was looking to turn the screw, only to walk on to a 1-2 from Wilder that saw him tumble.
There was blood in the water, and Wilder attacked, dropping Fury again with a right hook in the clinch that put doubt into the mind of the Fury fans as he looked overconfident in his ability to absorb Wilder’s punishment.
Fury recovered well and forced himself back into the fight, wobbling Wilder on a few occasions as he took control of the fight down the stretch.
As Wilder began to fade in the championship rounds, Fury was landing heavy right hands at will and felled Wilder for the second time with a right hook
There was little resistance left in Wilder in the 11th round as he desperately looked for a one-shot answer to Fury’s onslaught, but Fury had too much and pushed Wilder back to the ropes.
Wilder was exhausted and let his hands drop, opening the gap for Fury to land the fight-ending right hook.
The fight was called off by the referee and was hailed by the commentary team as a modern classic with five knockdowns and both fighters showing an incredible unwillingness to stay down.
But one man must win, and that man was Fury, who put their rivalry to bed with the fire and tenacity that it had begun with.
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The aftermath
The fight’s promoter, Bob Arum, said after the fight that he had “never seen a heavyweight fight as magnificent as this”.
Wilder refused to acknowledge Fury in defeat, and this would be the beginning of an unfortunate downturn in Wilder’s career, clearly suffering lasting damage in their three blockbuster fights that knocked his confidence.
Since their final fight, Wilder is 2-2, suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
Fury went on to attempt to become the undisputed heavyweight champion against Oleksandr Usyk after defences against Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora, but would lose twice to the Ukrainian and currently waits in the wings for the opportune moment to return.
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