Tyson Fury pours on punishing blows, earns TKO win over Deontay Wilder

Round 11: Tyson Fury opens with a dangerous right hand to the jaw of Deontay Wilder as sweat flies off the American’s forehead. Moments after, Fury connects and drops Wilder with a discombobulating right hand that simultaneously busts Wilder’s ear.

Referee Russell Mora immediately waves off the fight and Fury to scores a TKO win. Wow! The seesaw fight is over in resounding fashion. Fury finishes the trilogy with a 2-0-1 record against Wilder.

Round 10: Tyson Fury precisely picks his punch with a powerful right hand to the head of Deontay Wilder and drops him. Wilder appears out on his feet and somehow rebounds in the last few seconds to stave off Fury. The British boxer scores his third knockdown of the fight. Wilder has two knockdowns.

Round 9: A chopping left hook begins Tyson Fury’s offense in the eighth. Fury has started smothering Deontay Wilder with his punches and is putting on a clinic. Wilder has started bleeding from his mouth and is not looking good after seemingly having a lead midway through the fight.

Round 8: Deontay Wilder clearly didn’t recover from the previous round and absorbed a one-sided beating in Round 8, seemingly walking around the ring on stilts as Tyson Fury laid a lashing on him. The tide has clearly turned to Fury’s favor as the championship rounds near. Wilder’s right hand appears to be hurt.

Round 7: Tyson Fury has more pep in his step to start the seventh. He seems more excited to finish the fight in style. A right hand lands flush to the side of Deontay Wilder’s temple.

Wilder tries to take Fury’s head off and slips for his efforts. Fury picks up the pace of his onslaught immediately after and pushes Wilder with a ferocious combination that staggers him. Wilder is clearly hurting.

Round 6: A grappling match ensued midway through the sixth. Deontay Wilder took a knee with 35 seconds left, but it was ruled a slip by referee Russell Mora. Tyson Fury finished with frenetic energy, while Wilder appears to be more fatigued with six more rounds to go.

The sixth round featured a series of furious exchanges, with both fighters aiming for yet another knockdown.

Round 5: After two rounds scintillating featuring three knockdowns, both fighters step into the center of the ring battered, bruised and clearly fatigued from the punishment they have administered on each other. The pace of the action slows, but who knows what’s in store in the second half of the fight? The bout is officially anyone’s to win.

Round 4: The drama continues. Deontay Wilder rebounds resoundingly and scores two knockdowns in the round. The first shot connects with a shot to the forehead. Tyson Fury gets up, but Wilder follows and lands a right hand to the left of Fury’s temple. Fury gets up off the canvas and beats the 10 count as he’s saved by the bell.

What a fight!

Round 3: Tyson Fury scores the fight’s first knock down with 30 seconds left in the round with a right hand to the side of the left temple of Deontay Wilder’s head. Fury follows with an uppercut combination that drops Wilder. Wilder is clearly hurt and wobbled, but he miraculously survives to see the fourth.

High drama through three, as Fury has outlanded Wilder 37 to 21.

Round 2: The two sluggers come out in Round 2 with a more calculated pace. Each trade one big punch at a time until the midway point. Deontay Wilder’s shots create a more animated response from Tyson Fury, as a right hand pushes Fury back to the ropes. Fury follows back ferociously with another overhand right hand. The fight has started off close and is entertaining through two.

Round 1: Deontay Wilder steps in right off the bell with several jabs to the body. He then picks up the offense with an overhand right hand. Wilder is pressing the action and dictating the pace, off to a better start than the sequel. Fury lands his first punch 90 seconds in and immediately holds. He picks up the action soon after and lands a vicious right hand on Wilder’s temple, the best punch of the round.

A close first round kicks off the trilogy.

Frank Sánchez, of Cuba, celebrates after defeating Efe Ajagba, of Nigeria, by unanimous decision in a heavyweight title boxing match Saturday in Las Vegas.

(Chase Stevens / Associated Press)

The high-level matchup between Efe Ajagba and Frank Sánchez was a palatable one featuring a pitting of a pair of unbeaten heavyweight prospects.

The fight proved to be more mouthwatering on paper, as a mismatch of styles delivered a mostly milquetoast affair during the pay-per-view co-feature of the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder card from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Sánchez (19-0, 13 KOs) — a stablemate of Canelo �lvarez known as “The Cuban Flash� — connected with effective punches, showed superior ring generalship and scored a knockdown in the 10-round fight to land a unanimous decision win with scores of 97-92, 98-91 and 98-91.

The first round started as a feeling-out stanza. The second was no different, featuring a slew of feints and choice punches from both boxers. Sánchez and Ajagba landed seven punches each throughout the first six minutes.

By the third round, the 29-year-old Sánchez got into a groove by connecting with a crisp jab and overhand right hand. The 2016 Nigerian Olympian Ajagba (15-1, 12 KOs), on the other hand, could not allow himself to let his hands go as much and Sánchez started to sneak by.

The 27-year-old Ajagba started pressing forward more in the fourth and pressed Sánchez along the ropes, but he failed to fire off anything of substance. Sánchez wasn’t in the mood to engage much either. The lull in action carried over in the fifth and sixth, and fans started to boo as the lack of entertainment mounted.

Action would soon pick up, however.

Ajagba scored what appeared to be a flash knockdown in the sixth with a sharp jab as Sánchez swung and missed in one motion, but a knockdown was not ruled.

In the seventh, the Eddy Reynoso-trained Sánchez stepped it up and scored the fight’s first official flooring with an overhand right. But he was a little too eager when he illegally hit Ajagba again as he was down with a vicious left hook. Referee Mike Ortega didn’t deduct a point for the foul.

Sánchez connected on 57 of 276 of his punches, while Ajagba was 53 of 287 on his punches.

Robert Helenius, left, punches Adam Kownacki during a heavyweight bout Saturday in Las Vegas.

(Chase Stevens / Associated Press)

Robert Helenius proved his fourth-round KO win over Adam Kownacki in 2020 was no fluke, dominating the Brooklyn-based Polish heavyweight for six rounds en route to a TKO victory.

Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs) started the first round with a hellacious, hulk-like attack, rocking Kownacki (20-2, 15 KOs) in the beginning and latter parts of the round. Kownacki returned to his corner with both eyes swollen and never recovered in the fight.

Kownacki tried to get himself back into the fight illegally in the third round. Referee Celestino Ruiz gave the Brooklyn-based Polish heavyweight a stern warning and ended up deducting a point in the fifth when Kownacki repeated the foul.

In the sixth round, a desperate Kownacki tried to get himself back into the fight before the referee stopped the fight. It initially appeared the official disqualified Kownacki, but the official scorecard lists it as a Helenius win by technical knockout.

Ruiz helped Kownacki avoid absorbing unnecessary damage in what was a rough, one-sided fight.

The Finnish Helenius outlanded Kownacki 29 to 11 in the first round and never looked back, outlanding Kownacki 129 to 52 to end the night.

Jared Anderson celebrates after defeating Vladimir Tereshkin in a heavyweight boxing match Saturday in Las Vegas.

(Chase Stevens / Associated Press)

Jared Anderson and Vladimir Tereshkin kicked off the Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder pay-per-view portion of the broadcast in a battle between unbeaten heavyweights.

The 21-year-old prospect Anderson (10-0, 10, KOs), a touted Ohio-based boxer, proved he was the better pugilist, dominating the older Tereshkin (22-1-1) for two rounds in one-sided action, stopping the Russian with nine seconds left to go in the second round.

A powerful right hand by Anderson started the damage late in the round, and a barrage of punches followed as referee Kenny Bayless stepped in to stop the fight.

Tyson Fury arrives at a weigh-in for his February 2020 WBC heavyweight championship match against Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas.

(Isaac Brekken / Associated Press)

Tyson Fury

Nickname: The Gypsy King

Residence: Morecambe, England, United Kingdom

Birthplace: Manchester, England, United Kingdom

Age: 33 (born Aug. 12, 1988)

Record: 30-0-1, 21 KOs

Total rounds boxed: 193

World championship fights: 2-0-1, 1 KO

Height: 6-foot-9

Weight: 277 (career heaviest); Fury weighed 256½ in 2018 fight; 273 pounds in 2020 rematch

Reach: 85 inches

Stance: Right-handed

Manager: MTK Global

Promoter: Top Rank

Trainer: Sugarhill Steward

Notable wins: Deontay Wilder (and one draw), Wladimir Klitschko, Dereck Chisora (twice)

Deontay Wilder arrives at a weigh-in for his February 2020 WBC heavyweight championship match against Tyson Fury in Las Vegas.

(Isaac Brekken / Associated Press)

Deontay Wilder

Nickname: The Bronze Bomber

Age: 35 (born Oct. 22, 1985)

Residence and birthplace: Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Record: 42-1-1, 41 KOs

Total rounds boxed: 150

World championship fights: 10-1-1, 9 KOs

Height: 6-foot-7

Weight: 238 (career heaviest); Wilder weighed 212½ in 2018 fight; 231 pounds in 2020 rematch

Reach: 83 inches

Stance: Right-handed

Advisor: Al Haymon of Premier Boxing Champions

Manager: Shelly Finkel

Trainer: Malik Scott

Notable wins: Luis Ortiz (twice), Bermane Stiverne (twice), Dominic Breazeale, Chris Arreola

A tense and foul-mouthed news conference took place Wednesday featuring Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Here are some of the sound bites the principals provided:

Tyson Fury

“I’ve just been training and taking it day by day. All we can do is live one day at a time. Every day that we wake up is a blessed day.�

“All these fights are exactly the same to me. Some guy is trying to take my head off. No matter who it may be, they don’t matter to me. It’s the Tyson Fury roadshow and it has continued for 13 years.�

WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury talks during a news conference with Deontay Wilder in Los Angeles on June 15, 2021.

(Richard Vogel / Associated Press)

“Wilder is a weak person mentally and I’m going to knock him out on Saturday night. I obliterated him in the rematch and I see much more of the same in the third fight.�

“I’m the last man standing between me, Deontay and Anthony Joshua. I’m the last one undefeated. I’m the two-time heavyweight champion and I’ve never lost a fight. That’s history.�

“Me and [trainer] Sugarhill [Steward] go back to like 2010 in Detroit. We have a great bond going. To have any successful relationship, you have to have good communication. We’ve got that. We just gel together.�

“It’s not easy for me to pick a trainer because I’m outspoken and do outlandish things. I have to have someone on the same wavelength to match that and I’ve definitely found a match with Sugarhill.�

“[Wilder] says he wants to do bad things to me and that he’s got all this anger and aggression. Those who hold hot coals with aggression are the ones who get burned. He knows he’s lost twice and that he’s going to lose the third time.�

“He’s in denial and he’s getting knocked out. His legacy is in bits. I knocked him out and now I’m going to retire him.�

Deontay Wilder

“I don’t have anything to prove. I’m in a great place and in a great state of mind. I have a lot of great people around me. This fight is about redemption, retaliation and retribution.�

Longtime heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder refused to talk during a news conference in Los Angeles on June 15, 2021.

(Richard Vogel / Associated Press)

“We’ve been going from Day 1 since the last fight. There’s been no stop. The delays have been beneficial for us. One thing about this camp is that I’ve had all of my brothers around me who’ve been with me from the start.�

“Many people thought I was down and out, but it wouldn’t be fair to the people around me to feel that way. My dedication has been focused every day.�

“Overtraining is a real thing and we’ve been able to take small breaks at certain times before getting back at it. Everything has been good and timed out perfectly.�

“Saturday night is going to be a different fight. It’s rare that we get trilogies like this, and I truly believe this one is going down in history.�

“It’s only made me better as a man and as a fighter to see certain things that happened in the second fight. It’s made me even hungrier than before. I needed everything that happened in that fight. It was really a blessing in disguise.�

“I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Your legacy only dies when the desire for the sport dies. I’m well alive right now.�

“My energy is like my mind, it’s very violent. I’m just ready to go on Oct. 9. I’ve dedicated myself and devoted my time and my body, me and my team, to reinvent myself. I’m ready to reintroduce myself to the world.�

“Get ready for war. This is going to be an amazing fight on Saturday night. I’m wearing my red outfit because I want it back in blood. I’m looking forward to it.�

Tyson Fury, right, lands a punch against Deontay Wilder during their WBC heavyweight championship match in Las Vegas on Feb. 22, 2020.

(Isaac Brekken / Associated Press)

Sugarhill Steward, Fury’s trainer

“Training Tyson Fury has been just about making him better. He was already an exceptional boxer before I started training him. We fine-tuned those skills and understood some things that he didn’t see. Most importantly, it’s just about being ready. When he’s ready, he’s unstoppable.�

“Tyson Fury is very conscious of Deontay’s abilities. We’re just concentrating on being sharp and being focused. There’s always more to learn in boxing and Tyson is learning and having fun with it.�

“It’s exciting to be here. I believe in what the Wilder camp has been working on. I’ve looked at the clips. It gets me motivated to keep working with Tyson. We’re expecting nothing less than a knockout.�

Malik Scott, Wilder’s trainer

“I’m a student of the game. Deontay, in my opinion, ruled the heavyweight division just using one or two weapons. Being in training with him, I used to always say that a lot of his skills weren’t being used. He got content knocking people out with one weapon.�

“I went into Deontay’s toolbox and pulled everything out that he did well. I wanted to make sure that we drilled it over and over again. I didn’t teach him anything new. Deontay Wilder can do it all, I just pulled some of those things out of him.�

“When it comes to working on Deontay’s fundamentals, he has good fundamentals, he just didn’t always use them. I’m just reminding him about tools that he wasn’t using.�

Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury get into an altercation during their news conference on Feb. 19, 2020, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

(John Gurzinski / AFP via Getty Images)

A wide range of boxing experts shared their thoughts on Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder III ahead of the heavyweight showdown Saturday night in Las Vegas:

The conventional wisdom after the second fight between Fury and Wilder is that Fury has Wilder’s number and would dominate him again. Wilder had some bizarre behavior in the aftermath of the loss, but you can’t forget that punching power. If new trainer Malik Scott can make a few positive changes, this is a different fight. I think it looks more like their first bout than their second, though. Fury is a far better boxer and his size is an issue for Wilder. I don’t discount Wilder’s chances, but I see Fury taking a unanimous decision in this one.

— Kevin Iole, Yahoo Sports boxing and MMA columnist

I admit: I’m not supremely confident in Fury, not after two bouts with COVID-19, a 20-month layoff and some extra padding — at least according to Sugar Hill — around his waist. But Wilder wasn’t just beaten in the last fight — he was broken. That’s tough to come back from. He flipped trainers, but Malik Scott can’t reinvent a 35-year old one-punch knockout artist, not in one training camp at least. I expect Wilder to be competitive early. But just like in the last fight, Fury will walk Wilder down. And just like in that fight, Fury will finish Wilder, this time by referee stoppage before the final bell.

— Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated senior writer

Fury obviously has proven to be the better fighter through nearly 19 rounds of their rivalry. But a highly motivated Wilder remains the most pulverizing puncher in boxing. He’ll handle Fury’s pressure and physicality much better than in their rematch to make this the type of slugfest he can win. Expect Wilder to land a devastating right hand at some point within the first six rounds, which will leave even the extremely tough Fury unable to recover. Wilder by knockout.

— Keith Idec, BoxingScene.com senior writer and columnist

Read more >>>

Nigeria’s Efe Ajagba celebrates after stopping Romania’s Razvan Cojanu on March 7, 2020, in the ninth round in New York.

(Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)

The pay-per-view portion of Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III will feature one of the best undercards in recent memory, with a trio of heavyweight tilts.

In the co-feature, 2016 Nigerian Olympian Efe Ajagba (15-0, 12 KOs) takes on Canelo Alvarez’s stablemate, Cuban contender Frank Sanchez (18-0, 13 KOs), in a 10-round bout featuring a pair of unbeaten heavyweight prospects.

Brooklyn-based Polish heavyweight Adam Kownacki (20-1, 15 KOs) will look to get revenge against Robert Helenius (30-3, 19 KOs) after suffering a fourth-round TKO loss to the Finnish heavyweight in March 2020. The fight is scheduled for 12 rounds.

To kick off the card, touted American heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson (9-0, 9 KOs) takes on Russian Vladimir Tereshkin (22-0-1, 12 KOs) in a 10-round fight.

On a separate broadcast on ESPN2, FS1, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes and Fox Deportes that starts at 4 p.m., Brooklyn-based knockout artist Edgar Berlanga (17-0, 16 KOs) takes on Argentinian Marcelo Coceres (30-2-1, 16 KOs) in a 10-round super middleweight match.

Setting them up will be former unified super welterweight champion Julian Williams (27-2-1, 16 KOs, 1 NC) of Philadelphia taking on Colombian Vladimir Hernandez (12-4, 6 KOs) in a 10-round bout.

Tyson Fury is listed as a -250 favorite to win, while Deontay Wilder is the betting underdog at +225, according to BetMGM. A draw is +2000.

Tyson Fury celebrates after defeating Deontay Wilder in a WBC heavyweight championship boxing match on Feb. 22, 2020, in Las Vegas.

(Isaac Brekken / Associated Press)

Tyson Fury is sitting shirtless in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter singing, “It’s getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes.�

The 6-foot-9-inch heavyweight champion has a penchant for hitting the high note, and it’s no different today, as he’s crooning Nelly’s 20-year-old dance anthem “Hot in Herre.�

It’s a scorching 94-degree day in Los Angeles. The song and Fury’s physical appearance are apropos as he promotes his trilogy fight against Deontay Wilder at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Fury was originally supposed to fight Wilder on July 24, but the British boxer contracted COVID-19 almost two weeks before the original fight date.

What was hot then is not so much now, and it has nothing to do with a seasonal change.

After twice knocking down and dominating Wilder for seven rounds to score a stoppage win in February 2020, Fury has been relegated to the sidelines for reasons ranging from the pandemic — twice contracting the coronavirus — to on-again, off-again negotiations with Anthony Joshua to dealing with the thorn in his side that is Wilder, who won an arbitration case in May to force his contractual right to a third fight.

Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) and Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KO) will finally meet — their first fight in 2018 was a split draw — but the heavyweight affair has somewhat fizzled since it now has to compete with the Major League Baseball playoffs and college football on Saturday night for fan affinity. The fact that Oleksandr Usyk and not the more marketable Joshua is waiting at the finish line does not help.

The PR engines of ESPN and Fox, which are co-producing the bout (available on pay-per-view for $79.99), will undoubtedly help drum up interest for what is still a marquee fight.

Read more >>>

If you don’t have tickets to watch at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the third fight between WBC champion Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder can be ordered on pay-per-view through ESPN+ or Fox Sports for $79.99.

To watch on ESPN+, you must have a subscription to the streaming service. The PPV portion of the show begins at 6 p.m. PDT and the main event should start around 8:30.

The fight can also be seen at movie theaters, including locations owned by Cinemark, AMC, Regal, Harkins and Galaxy, as well as bars and restaurants. To find a local establishment carrying the fight, visit Joe Hand Promotions.

Play-by-play announcer Brian Kenny along with Hall of Fame fighters Lennox Lewis and Andre Ward will handle the pay-per-view commentary. Host Kate Abdo, former welterweight champion Shawn Porter and ESPN commentator Max Kellerman will offer analysis between fights.

Preliminary bouts begin at 1:30 p.m. on the ESPN and Fox Sports apps. Separate undercard bouts and broadcasts begin at 4 p.m. on ESPN2, FS1, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes and Fox Deportes.