Tyson Fury lay spark out on the floor of the Staples Centre ring almost 15 months ago but no sooner had he hit the floor than the thought occurred to him that the baddest man on the planet doesn't hit as hard as he says. Fury rose like The Undertaker and took the fight to Wilder for the rest of that 12th round.
Saturday night in Vegas, the fight continued where it left off. After the lavish ring walks, Fury being carried in on a throne singing Crazy by Patsy Cline, Wilder wearing some ridiculous sequinned black garb that covered him from head to knee. There was a nod to Black Power from the live musical accompaniment as The Bronze Bomber attempted to make this black versus white. That was his second mistake. Wilder didn't realise Fury ticks the box for ethnic minority "Irish Traveller" when filling out forms. As the champion reached the ring, the outfit lit up with red LED's but such was the restrictive nature of his walk wear, he had to get one of his team to help him over the ropes into the ring.
The fight finally began after 5am. Fury doing what he said he was going to do, aggressively taking the fight to Wilder just as he had done in the 12th round of the first fight. There were some exchanges. Wilder caught the Gypsy King but Fury sent an early message with powerful punches of his own to make Wilder wonder what he was thinking when designing his ring entrance. It wasn't quite Froch and Bute but it had that sort of sentiment. The second round was closer but Fury won that too. The fight was over as a contest in round three. Wilder had no answer to Fury's relentless advance and then he was caught with a right then a left followed by a clubbing right that floored him and busted his ear drum, Wilder got through the round, legs buckling, but never fully recovered. The fading champ got through the 4th but was on the canvas again in the 5th when Fury lifted him off the ground with a body punch. Wilder got some relief when Fury was docked a point. The lineal champion was well ahead and soon to add a belt to that title. Wilder could not stop Fury coming at him. His fabled right hand, the Alabama Hammer, fixed firmly in the tool belt for most of the fight. Wilder slumped in his corner after round 6, head down, blood pumping from his ear. His Trainer, Jay Deas, trying to stop the flow, offering advice about how he might get back into the fight but everything about this scene said Wilder didn't want to go back out there and Deas didn't want him to take any more punishment.
And so it ended in the seventh. Another barrage from the fists of Fury to the battered head of Wilder. Referee Kenny Bayless got between them and called it off, authorised to do so by the towel that had landed in the middle of the ring from Wilders corner. "And the new". This was not just a victory for Tyson Fury, this was a resounding ascension to the heavyweight throne. Everything Fury promised to do was delivered. He backed up the bully. He said he was only at 50% for the first drawn fight so how would Wilder beat him when he was 100% over a year later. He said he would knock out Wilder and he did. Fury demands to be taken at his word now. Even after seven savage rounds of boxing mastery from Fury, he still had enough in the lungs to belt out a verse and a half and a chorus of Don MacLeans American Pie in a packed ring with every one of his team including his wife Paris, US Promoter Bob Arum, British Promoter Frank Warren, his cousin and new manager Andy Lee and the man who masterminded this victory, Trainer SugarHill Steward, all joining in.
I was at a work colleagues 60th birthday some years ago, around the time Fury was punching himself in the face while fighting for British, Commonwealth and even Irish championships. My friends son was a former amateur boxer who'd trained with Carl Frampton before The Jackal turned pro. I asked him what he thought of Fury - "biggest pudding I ever seen" was the reply. I thought about this after Fury won the world titles in 2015, then again after the first Wilder fight and now. I'd love to bump into that guy again some time and ask him what he thinks now, around 10 years later.
There have been some shameful swerves in the history of heavyweight boxing. Bowe and Lewis never happened. Fury and Wilder have dodged (or been dodged by) Joshua. Barry Hearn actually admitted that avoidance made it more lucrative. It doesn't get any bigger than it is right now and if Fury Joshua does not happen this year, in the biggest venue in England to unify the Heavyweight division, it will be the biggest disgrace in sporting history. In a business where money talks more than in any other sports business, Barry and Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren and Bob Arum need to pay off every mandatory challenger (including Wilder) for each belt to clear the way for the fight the world wants to see.
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