Post Mortem: Tyson Fury Wins Wilder Trilogy, Popularity At New Heights
If you’ve been living under a rock, a big heavyweight boxing fight happened last night. Earlier in the week we talked about the third fight with Wilder was Fury’s fight to lose, and he came close, but he did not crumble. Tyson Fury dispatched of Deontay Wilder in the 11th round of a thrilling fight that had many asking, “How much more can Wilder take?” The fight marked the end of the trilogy between the two and each fight had produced an incredible amount of fireworks.
Fury dominated the fight for the most part. Early on he knocked down Wilder and it looked like the fight was getting away from the Bronze Bomber. Then, in the fourth, Wilder knocked Fury down with a rocket of a right hand down the pipe. After setting up the jab to the body early, it looked like Wilder would finally defeat Fury after three tries with a second knockdown.
Tyson Fury gained composure and started to get the best of Deontay Wilder. After being a bit stagnant for the first two rounds, Fury started moving and overwhelming Wilder, landing shot after shot. Several times, Wilder’s legs went out and looked like a knockout was imminent.
In round ten, Fury found the jab-pivot-right hook and landed on Wilder multiple times. It was this exact combination that eventually put Wilder away in round 11.
The Significance of the Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder
The trilogy is being touted as one of the best in the history of heavyweight boxing. I want to pump the brakes on that, the trilogy was good but not particularly competitive. When there are hundreds of years of boxing and trilogies like Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, Riddick Bowe vs. Evander Holyfield, and Ezzard Charles vs. Jersey Joe Walcott, you can’t put the cart before the horse. It’s a fantastic trilogy, but let’s remember history.
However, after years of irrelevance and regression of boxing, Tyson Fury’s return and Deontay Wilder’s trail of bodies made heavyweight boxing relevant again. The Klitschko brothers made the general audience not care about the sport. When Fury took the belt from them, people became interested again. Then he went away.
Fury’s comeback coincided with the rise of Deontay Wilder and the two were on an inevitable collision course. When Tyson Fury was over 400 pounds, Wilder was always inevitable. People love a comeback story and Tyson Fury exemplifies that. He overcame his depression, returned to the sport that made him famous, and ascended to new heights.
It’s the drama caused in the first fight that made this trilogy so intriguing. The 12th round was something out of a movie as Fury fell to the canvas as Deontay Wilder finally landed the kiss of death on The Gypsy King. Lying there on the canvas as the 10-count proceeded, boxing fans new and old had their mouths on the floor as Wilder defeated Fury.
Then Tyson Fury got up. He rose like The Undertaker, recovered, and proceeded to win the rest of the 12th round. While many thought Fury won the fight, it ended in a draw and it seems that a trilogy was inevitable at this point. Fury rising from the canvas after being hit by the hardest puncher in boxing personified his comeback in an incredible way. From losing it all even though he had it all, to almost looking like the best days were behind him, to rising to a new height, Fury was the metaphorical phoenix rising from the ashes more than once.
Then we had the second fight and Fury knocked out Wilder, a huge statement for the UK native. The entire second fight was built up off of that 12th round. Would Fury walk down Wilder like the last round? The answer was yes. Fury dominated the second fight, putting down Wilder in the 7th.
Taking His Name To New Heights
The third fight, while controversially made, was the best fight of the three, sure. But the first fight’s drama loomed over the third. Fury’s win was an exclamation mark. The third fight had all the drama of the first, the finish of the second, and closure not provided by either.
As far as trilogies go, it was all Fury if we’re being honest. Leading the series 2-0-1, he’s never truly lost. While he’s surely faced the most adversity in the Wilder trilogy, Tyson Fury took his star to new levels. While the Klitschko fight was for all the marbles and all of the belts on the line, Fury truly made his name known by defeating the air raid attack that none had been able to stop. It’s Ali stopping George Foreman, the tactician versus the bomber.
As far as modern trilogies, it’s fantastic. Now, Fury can have a homecoming and fight Dillian Whyte in the UK, as the WBC has deemed Whyte the mandatory. With Oleksandr Usyk looking to unify his second division and a rematch with Anthony Joshua looming there, Fury and Usyk/Joshua may be some time off. But he will have time to further his legacy in the US, UK and worldwide.
