Fury drills Wilder in 11th round of all-time classic heavyweight championship war

LAS VEGAS — The third Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder fight was unforgettable as they waged an all-time epic heavyweight championship fight in which they were down a combined five times and ended with Fury finally putting Wilder away with a thunderous right hand in the 11th round to retain the title on Saturday night.

It was a breathtaking battle — the obvious fight of the year so far — from start to finish in which most of the crowd of 15,820 at T-Mobile Arena stood as Fury and Wilder slugged it out and finished a rare and historic heavyweight championship trilogy in dramatic fashion.

It was an honor to be ringside for what I now consider the greatest heavyweight title fight I have ever covered. I was there for Lennox Lewis’ bloody war with Vitali Klitschko at Staples Center in 2003 and also for Anthony Joshua’s 11th-round knockout of Wladimir Klitschko in the 2017 fight of the year at Wembley Stadium in London.

Fury-Wilder III was better. I wrote all about it for The Ring website. Make sure you do not miss the story here: https://www.ringtv.com/628336-tyson-fury-deontay-wilder-iii-a-breathtaking-heavyweight-epic/?fbclid=IwAR0A5LhemEXdpd1Qmz6PEKlX613pSz0oIB4vdcc-Bs1VNcBbVp1snfq-fzs

PPV undercard

On the pay-per-view undercard, there were three additional heavyweight fights. Frank Sanchez notched an impressive decision win over Efe Ajagba in a meeting of up-and-comers; Robert Helenius made it 2-for-2 against Adam Kownacki in winning a one-sided fight by sixth-round knockout; and blue chip prospect Jared Anderson continued his knockout streak as he rolled through Vladimir Tereshkin with ease, stopping him in the second round.

You read about each of those fights on The Ring website here: https://www.ringtv.com/628325-frank-sanchez-outpoints-efe-ajagba-over-10-rounds-helenius-beats-kownacki-again/

Preliminary fights

In preliminary action, rising super middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga got knocked down for the first time in the first competitive fight of his career, but he hung on for a unanimous decision win over former world title challenger Marcelo Esteban Coceres. Also, unheralded junior middleweight Vladimir Hernandez notched a hard-fought upset split decision over former unified world titlist Julian “J-Rock” Williams. I wrote about those two bouts and the rest of prelims for The Ring website here: https://www.ringtv.com/628323-edgar-berlanga-gets-up-from-knockdown-to-outpoint-marcelo-coceres-vlad-hernandez-upsets-j-rock/

Fury-Wilder III Scorecard

Photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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