Tyson Fury truly is the king.
He said he would knock out Deontay Wilder in their rematch Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He did more than that. He methodically destroyed the greatest knockout artist of the era.
When it was over, Wilder, unable to adequately defend himself, had blood coming out of an ear and his mouth. And Fury reclaimed the position he first earned by beating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 and then gave up to battle his personal demons.
“The king has returned to the top of the throne,” Fury said.
Fury’s ring entrance was prophetic. He entered the ring wearing the garb of a king and sat on a throne while the Patsy Cline song “Crazy” played over the loudspeakers in the packed hotel arena. Crazy like a fox.
In their first fight, a disputed draw in December 2018, Fury fought defensively. He vowed that he would take the fight to Wilder in the rematch. And he did from the opening bell.
Right from the start, Fury, moving forward, landed thudding jabs, some hard rights and rarely allowed Wilder to get into position to land his big right hand. And when they ended up in close quarters Fury, all 6-foot-9, 273 pounds of him, would hold and lean on the smaller man in an apparent attempt to sap his strength.
Wilder, long criticized for his crude technique, had no answers for what turned out to be a brilliant game plan.
The beginning of the end for Wilder came in Round 3, when, toward the end of the round, Fury landed right toward the top of Wilder’s head and down he went. He was able to get to his feet and finish the round but he was never 100 percent after that.
In the next round, he seemed to fight on shaky legs, as if he had problems with his equilibrium. At one point, he ducked a punch from Fury and awkwardly stumbled backward onto his back.
Then, in Round 5, a left to Wilder’s side put him down again a little over a minute into the round. It became evident then that blood was dripping from Wilder’s left ear, raising the possibility that his ear drum was damaged.
Fury lost a point for holding in that round, which seemed to irk him for a moment, but nobody watching at the point thought it would matter. Fury was in complete control.
Wilder looked like a beaten man in Round 6, seemingly too damaged even to set up one of his trademark right hands, although he tried. It seemed only a matter of time before Fury would finish the job and reclaim a portion of the heavyweight championship.
The latter part of the round was marked by a strange moment. Fury, who had said beforehand he wanted to taste blood, appeared to feign licking some of it off of Wilder.
Finally, in Round 7, Wilder was still wobbly when Fury trapped him in a corner and flailed away, landing one right in particular that caught the eye. And Wilder threw little back. Finally, Wilder’s corner, putting his health above his title, signaled to referee Kenny Bayless that enough was enough and the fight was waved off.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) had reclaimed his royal status.
“A big shout out to Deontay Wilder,” Fury said graciously afterward. “He showed he has the heart of a champion. I hit him clean [when I] dropped him but he continued to battle. He will be back, he will be champion again.”
Fury then began to celebrate in earnest as the pro-“Gypsy King” crowd cheered their support, capped by the fighter-turned-singer’s rendition of “American Pie” in what became a raucous singalong.
Meanwhile, Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) tried to make sense of what had just happened.
The “Bronze Bomber” had stopped all but one of the men he faced. No matter what preceded it, his right hand almost always proved to be the difference in his fights. However, on this night, he was dominated by a better fighter.
Wilder cryptically made reference to issues he had going into the fight, presumably physical problems, but he never elaborated. And he expressed frustration that his corner ended the fight.
“I’m doing good,” he said. “Things like this happen. The best man won tonight. My side through in the towel. I was ready to go out on my shield. I had a lot going on coming into this fight. … No excuses tonight. I wish my corner would’ve let me go out on my shield.
“… I’ll come back stronger. … Even the greatest have lost and come back. It’s just part of it. I take it for what it is.”
Wilder has the option of calling for a third fight, which was in the contract he and Fury signed. It’s difficult to imagine him and his team jumping right back into the ring with Fury, though.
The beating delivered by the Englishman was too thorough, too conclusive, too damaging. Wilder will have some thinking to do. And some healing.