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British professional boxer Tyson Fury handed a defeat to Deontay Wilder to retain his WBC heavyweight crown. Fury produced a thrilling 11-round knockout as the trilogy bout between the boxers witnessed an engrossing contest in Las Vegas.
While Fury had seemingly knocked his American opponent down in the third round of the match itself, the bout was far from over. The very next round saw Wilder bounce back in style sending the Briton down twice, in a round where he displayed some solid right-hand moves.
Eventually, though it was Fury who found a way to stay on top and clinch the bout. The win comes over a year and a half since the 33-year-old had dethroned Wilder as he extended his undefeated record to 32 fights. The fact that he showed a tremendous amount of resilience to come back from a disastrous fourth round, makes his effort all the more commendable.
After the fourth round which was dominated by Wilder, the American did struggle in the subsequent few rounds, as he somehow hung on to the end of the seventh round. There was an intense battle in the 10th round where the eventual winner managed to knock his opponent down yet again before sealing this chapter of heavyweight boxing with a finishing blow in the 11th round.
"I was down a couple of times, I was hurt, Wilder is a strong puncher," said Fury as quoted by the BBC.
"It was a great fight. I will not make any excuses, Wilder is a top fighter, he gave me a run for my money. I always say I am the best fighter in the world and he is the second-best," he added.
"Don't ever doubt me. When the chips are down I can always deliver," he stated.
Post the match, Fury took to Instagram to share a picture of himself with the much-deserved heavyweight belt. He chose to caption the picture with two words and emojis. "AND STILL……??" he wrote.
Check out his post here:
The result also implies that Fury has now taken two of the three meetings between the rival boxers.