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Despite Tyson Fury’s customary braggadocio, the thought was that he would play it safe in the face of Deontay Wilder’s historic power. Instead, he stayed in “The Bronze Bomber’s” face all night to incredible results.
After two competitive rounds that saw Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KO) jab and move well while his larger foe put on the pressure, Fury (30-0-1, 21 KO) followed a left hook with a right hand to the ear that sent Wilder sprawling awkwardly to the mat. It was clinical from there — Wilder never recovered his footing, pouring blood from the stricken ear that suggested a damaged eardrum. Fury never let up, mixing in mauling flurries with tiring clinches that further sapped Wilder’s deteriorating stamina.
Fury nearly had him out in the fifth, putting him on his rear with a body shot and pouring it on, but lost both momentum and a point when the referee penalized him for refusing to break the clinch. Undaunted, he poured on the hurt until Wilder’s corner threw in an overdue towel in the seventh.
Years after his upset of Wladimir Klitschko and subsequent meltdown, Fury once again finds himself at the top of the Heavyweight world, while Wilder will have to bounce back from a humiliatingly one-sided defeat. In an ideal world, we’d see Fury meet unified champion Anthony Joshua for undisputed status once Joshua deals with mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev later this year. If not, well, Top Rank’s put together a decent stable of challengers for “The Gypsy King.”
The evening also saw Charles Martin knock out Gerald Washington in a Heavyweight eliminator, Emanuel Navarrete retain his Super Bantamweight title with a beatdown of Jeo Santisima, and Sebastian Fundora overcome Daniel Lewis in a clash of Super Welterweight prospects.
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