Tyson Fury beats Deontay Wilder to retain WBC heavyweight boxing title – as it happened (2024)

We’re going to close up here now but our fight report is now up and running here. Thanks for tuning in:

And the champ is fit enough to tweet (or at least to get his social media person to tweet on his behalf):

Tyson Fury looked pretty calm after 11 rounds of boxing:

Deontay Wilder is on his way to hospital - I still have no idea how he survived close to the distance in that fight, the bravery and the toughness of a man primarily known for his punching power was incredible. We’re told the hospital visit is merely precautionary. His trainer Malik Scott told him between rounds: “You’re going to be proud of yourself tomorrow”. Scott is right - he should be.

Well, that beat the hell out of Jake Paul’s last fight. An all-time classic - there were five knockdowns in that fight - and a reminder why boxing with actual boxers can be a thrilling spectacle. And LeBron James agrees:

“I’m the best fighter in the world and he’s the second best,” says Fury after the fight, which contained five knockdowns in total (and nine overall in the trilogy).

He adds: “I was hurt, he’s a tough man ... it was a great fight tonight, worthy of the best trilogies. I pray for (Wilder), so God will soften his heart.”

Wilder has left the ring and disappeared into the tunnel, but not before holding up his right hand with a smile to salute them.

The Gypsy King has retained his heavyweight crown with an 11th-round knockout of Deontay Wilder before a delirious crowd of 15,820 at the T-Mobile Arena. What heart! What courage! An instant classic that ennobles both men.

Round 11

Fury lands a sharp right uppercut followed by a right hand that sends Wilder reeling along the ropes. Another right hand sends Wilder crashing to the canvas and the referee waves it off. Tyson Fury has retained his WBC heavyweight title!

Round 10

A slow start to the 10th round but the room explodes when Fury detonates a right hand that drops Wilder to the floor. Wilder makes it to his feet and convinces to referee he’s OK to continue. Wilder responds by landing a couple of crips shots, then ends the round wobbling Fury with big combinations of punches in a corner. Unbelievable fight.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 8-10 Fury (Wilder 90-96 Fury)

Round 9

Wilder moving almost exclusively in reverse as Fury stalks the challenger. Wilder appears content to clinch when possible and hope for a second wind. Wilder is throwing punches but they completely lack sting. Fury gets Wilder up on the ropes but isn’t really letting his hands go when there. In fact, at the end of the round Wilder landed a sharp inside uppercut with his back against the ropes that might have nicked him the round on some cards.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 82-86 Fury)

Round 8

The champion is walking down Wilder and gets him trapped in the corner. Fury is landing one big shot after another on Wilder and the challenger can only clinch to buy time. Fury now measuring his man, patient. A big right-left combination by Fury upstairs and Wilder looks out. One minute to go in the round. Wilder trying to land the big right but looks like all his power is gone and Fury slips every offering with ease. There’s the bell. Fury has landed 97 punches through eight rounds compared to 54 by Wilder, per Compubox’s punch stats.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 73-76 Fury)

Round 7

Fury lands a concussive right hook upstairs in the early stages. Wilder seems to take it well but but his legs stiffen. Fury has Wilder on the run, connecting with a right and a hard uppercut, but Wilder stands his ground in the center and throws three slashing hooks that all miss. Now Fury has Wilder trapped against the ropes and opens up with punches. All the momentum with the champion right now.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 64-66 Fury)

Round 6

Fury beats Wilder to the punch with a straight left upstairs that wobbles the challenger. Wilder is exhausted but desperately trying to connect with his big right hand. Fury using every pound of his 277lb frame to lean and bully and make Wilder uncomfortable. Fury traps Wilder up against the ropes near a neutral corner for the closing stages of the round, which is not where the challenger wants to be, but can’t land anything of significance. It’s one of boxing’s oldest chestnuts but this is about will more than skill at this point.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 55-56 Fury)

Round 5

Both men are exhausted. Chants of “Wilder! Wilder!” rain down and the crowd tries to urge the challenger to finish it off. Wilder obliges them, taking an aggressive tack but eats a massive right from Fury. Both fighters throwing together but it seems like Fury is getting the better of the exchanges, just.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 46-46 Fury)

Round 4

Fury is simply walking Wilder down. Wilder moving backward and looks to be in grave trouble. And out of nowhere Wilder lands that right hand and Fury goes down in a heap! Unbelievable scenes! He beats the count hut he looks dejected. The fight resumes and moments later Fury goes down under a hail of punches again! He makes it to his feet, perhaps aided by a long count as Wilder didn’t go directly to his corner, and is able to make it to the end of the round. This is already an instant classic.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 10-7 Fury (Wilder 37-36 Fury)

Round 3

Wilder really looking to detonate that right hand, but not at the expense of throwing the jab and his body work. He throws a right wildly coming out a clinch and it misses Fury’s chin by a couple of inches. Fury moving forward more now and firing hus jab. Wilder lands a massive right hand that ignites the crowd. What a shot. But only seconds later, Fury gets Wilder up against the ropes and he’s unloading on the challenger. And Wilder is down! He beats the count but he’s in serious trouble. Fury pours on the punishment and Wilder looks out on his feet. Saved by the bell!

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 8-10 Fury (Wilder 27-29 Fury)

Round 2

Fury landed eight punches in the first round but seven in the last minute according to Compubox’s punch stats. Fury charges forward and lands a clubbing right to Wilder’s ribs. Fury has picked up the pace and is throwing more punches in the second and Wilder is ... not. Wilder lands a right but Fury last two right back. Easy round for the champion.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Fury (Wilder 19-19 Fury)

Round 1

Wilder opens with two jabs to the body and the comes out swinging, missing on a couple of lunging overhands and shots to the midsection as Fury calmly boxes off the back foot. Wilder, who’s taken the center early, making a concerted effort to attack the body. Wilder just misses with a big right. Fury clinches and Wilder looks to get out of it quickly. Fury begins pressing forward and catches Wilder with a huge right hand at the end of round, but round one goes to Wilder.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 10-9 Fury (Wilder 10-9 Fury)

Now it’s Tyson Fury, the champion. Tonight’s fight marks the first time the 33-year-old from Manchester has ever defended an actual belt despite a claim to the lineal title (ie being the man who beat the man who beat the man) that dates back nearly six years. He’s making his way to the ring in full gladiator garb to AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long.

And the lights have gone down! A resounding roar rises up from the crowd. And here comes Deontay Wilder, entering as the challenger for the first time in his career. He’s wearing a red robe with black trim and flanked by the Harlem rapper Loaded Lux performing the song Til This Day by Loaded Lux (feat. Deontay Wilder).

The crowd is getting a bit restless as we wait for Wilder to sort out his glove issue. The house DJ is going through one hit after another: Puff Daddy, DMX, now ... The Who. Meanwhile, they’re showing a couple of the celebrities sitting at or near ringside on the Jumbotron.

There’s Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, Damian Lillard and Jeremy Renner!

The betting on tonight’s fight at the MGM Grand sports book has closed. We’re told the final odds were -280 for the favorite Fury (meaning a $200 wager would pay off $100) and +230 for the underdog Wilder (meaning a $100 bet would return $230).

For the second fight, Wilder closed as a -135 favorite and Fury as a +115 underdog, which gives you a sense of how unpredictable this trilogy has been. So far, anyway.

There’s been a delay in the fighters making their entrances. We’re told the wait is due to Wilder still “dealing with his gloves”. After more than 19 months of waiting, what’s another few minutes?

Jimmy Lennon Jr is in the ring and we’re just about ready to go. Now it’s time for the anthems: first God Save the Queen followed by the Star-Spangled Banner. And, finally, the fighters are moments away from making their entrances. A positively electric atmosphere at the T-Mobile Arena, which has filled up almost entirely over the last hour.

A bit of dressing-room banter earlier between Fury and Deontay Wilder’s co-trainer Jay Deas. As Deas watches the champion get his hands wrapped, Fury tells him: “You missed the knuckle dusters last time.”

This of course is a reference to Wilder’s groundless claims that Fury cheated in their second fight by illegally tampering with his gloves.

Frank Sanchez has just won a unanimous decision over Efe Ajagba in a surprisingly dull 10-round heavyweight fight. The judges’ official scores were 97-92, 98-91 and 98-91. That means Fury and Wilder will be making their ringwalks next.

Meanwhile, NBA legends Shaquille O’Neal and Magic Johnson have both just walked by the press tribune (separately) in the last five minutes.

Elsewhere in the heavyweight division, Anthony Joshua has exercised his right to a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk after his shock defeat to the Ukrainian last month.

Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, confirmed the news on Saturday night. “Back in the game and looking for him to become a three-time world champion,” Hearn said.

The WBC has ruled that if the winner of tonight’s fight doesn’t meet Usyk then he will face Dillian Whyte.

A quick word about Fury’s remarkable journey to tonight’s fight. His return to the heavyweight summit is all the more astonishing considering he was out of the sport for more than two years amid public battles with addiction and mental illness, ballooning to nearly 400lbs and contemplating taking his own life. I had a chance to speak with him about it a few days ago.

Even if Fury is battered out of the park on Saturday night and never fights again, that he’s even in this position is a testament to an astonishing return from rock bottom, when he ballooned to nearly 25st and contemplated taking his own life during a 31-month layoff.

“It was internally, externally and spiritually: a combination of the three,” Fury says of his comeback from the abyss. “To go from the weight I was at, where I was at in my life, being 400lb, couldn’t sleep with the light off, scared to death of everything, anxiety killing me. I’ve come a long, long, long way. My anxiety was terrible. I believe anxiety is one of the worst things that anybody could have. It’s the fear of the unknown. It’s crazy.”

In the three years since Fury repurposed his first fight with Wilder into a platform to discuss his struggles with mental health, a subject once regarded as one of the last taboos in elite sport has since been thrust to the fore, most notably in the public ordeals of Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles this year. It’s a long-overdue conversation that Fury hasn’t necessarily gotten the proper credit for starting.

Osaka, who last month hinted at an extended break from tennis after her early exit from the US Open, has spoken about the ways her battles with anxiety can be directly traced back to her star-making win over Serena Williams for her first major title. Her recent admission that winning no longer gives her happiness resonates deeply with Fury, who experienced the same feelings of existential ennui in the aftermath of his own life-changing triumph in Düsseldorf six years ago, when he ended Wladimir Klitschko’s decade-long championship reign and won the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles he would later surrender without throwing a punch.

“Winning doesn’t mean anything,” Fury says. “It’s terrible. And I did retire. I was out for three years. I was as low as any man could ever go, to be fair. Right on the edge of death and life. What advice would I give for young athletes coming through – the best advice I could give anybody – is get the right help straight away. I never seeked help for my mental struggle until 2016. I didn’t know what was going on. I wasn’t experienced. Nobody knew around me what was going on. Very uneducated on the matter. And as soon as I got help, the sooner I could go back to get recovered.”

He continues: “One of the best things I ever did was come out and speak about it, because with communication you can get over any hurdle. But keeping it all to yourself and not communicating with others, you’re a bottle of champagne being shaken and shaken, waiting for the top to explode. And you’ll have a mental breakdown and won’t recover – or you seek help and try and get better.”

A little word from a former heavyweight champion now:

Here’s a look at how Fury and Wilder measure up ahead of tonight’s main event. The Gypsy King will enjoy two-inch advantages in height and reach in addition to coming in 39lb heavier, the smallest weight difference of their three fights.

For their first encounter back in December 2018, which ended in a split draw, Wilder came in at 212½lb, or 44lb less than Fury’s 256½lb. For the rematch, Wilder came in at a then-career-high 231lb and Fury tipped the scales at 273lb, claiming he’d been eating six meals and drinking eight litres of water daily in search of a size advantage against the lighter American. The tactic paid off as Fury spent most of the night coming forward and physically bossing around Wilder, who appeared slower than in their first fight as if compromised by the extra ballast.

Here’s a look at tonight’s order of play. We’ve only got one undercard bout left before the main event with Efe Ajagba and Frank Sanchez due to enter the arena for their 10-round heavyweight scrap any moment now. Then it’s chapter three of Fury and Wilder, who should make their ringwalks shortly after the top of the hour.

Here’s a look at the preliminaries that are in the books. They have included a minor upset as Mexico’s Vladimir Hernandez won a split decision over Philadelphia’s Julian Williams, who not that long ago defeated Jarrett Hurd for the unified junior middleweight title only to lose the belts in his first defense.

Hello and welcome to the Las Vegas strip for tonight’s showdown between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder for the WBC heavyweight title. We’re ringside at the T-Mobile Arena for the third fight in 34 months between this very odd couple, who are set to punctuate only the fifth trilogy between champions in boxing’s prestige division after Patterson-Johansson, Ali-Frazier, Ali-Norton and Bowe-Holyfield.

When they first crossed paths in December 2018 for the WBC title then held by Wilder, Fury spent most of the evening boxing the heavy-handed Alabaman’s ears off with erratic feints and deft upper-body movement belying his towering 6ft 9in frame. Even after suffering knockdowns in the ninth and 12th rounds, the latter of which left him seemingly unconscious on descent, Fury came off the floor each time and finished the round getting the better of the exchanges before settling for a disputed split draw.

Fifteen months later, Fury delivered the definitive outcome their first encounter failed to produce with a masterclass of come-forward violence, dropping Wilder in the third and fifth rounds before pouring on the punishment until the champion’s corner threw in the towel in the seventh.

“You’re a weak man and you’re getting knocked out,” said Fury during Wednesday’s final press conference. “Your legacy will be in tatters. Torn to bits. Finished.”

Said Wilder, who has mostly kept his silence during the run-up: “I’m in a great place, a great state of mind. There’s nothing to prove at all. This right here is redemption, retaliation and retribution.”

It’s just after 7pm in Las Vegas and the undercard is swimming along. The main event is expected to begin in roughly one hour. Plenty to come between now and then.

Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Donald McRae’s preview of tonight’s main event.