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By Greg Beacham
AP Sports Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Tyson Fury understands that the most memorable boxers are talented promoters as well, and he sold his heavyweight trilogy final against Deontay Wilder with showman flair.
The undefeated British champion taunted and modified Wilder throughout the build-up to their decisive WBC title showdown on Saturday night in Las Vegas, typically doing him shirtless in a tailored suit jacket. Fury’s confidence and charisma in the fighters’ public meetings throughout the extended process to get to this weekend has convinced much of the boxing world that they are poised to see another crowning glory – And another violent mutilation.
“He’s in denial and he’s knocked out”, said Fury. “His legacy is in pieces. I knocked it out, and now I’m going to take it out.
However, beneath Fury’s promotional theater, there is an underlying stream of frustration.
Fury is weary of Wilder’s bizarre antics and a little annoyed by the boxing machinations that forced him into a third edition of a fight he believes he has already won twice. While Fury is confident in his superior skills, he realizes that Wilder’s power of a punch is formidable, leaving him vulnerable to all of his hard work being erased in an instant.
And while Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) will make millions from this pay-per-view show at T-Mobile Arena on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, Wilder’s insistence on hosting the rematch prevented Fury from getting the fight he really wanted against fellow British champion Anthony Joshua.
Fury also feels some empathy as he believes Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) is going through some of the same sanity battles Fury fights every day, issues that threatened to derail his entire career before the first fight. of this trilogy.
This highly entertaining match has already featured two dramatic endings, but Fury is determined to end it all with an authority that will mark him as the most accomplished heavyweight of the era.
“We expect nothing less than a knockout”, said Sugarhill Steward, Fury’s trainer.
The rivalry began in late 2018 when Fury met Wilder at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The match was intriguing due to the contrast between Wilder’s fierce power and Fury’s comprehensive skills, but Fury took Wilder out for long stretches and would have won by decision except for two knockdowns, including a 12th round stunner who left Fury lying on his back as Wilder celebrated an incredibly dramatic turn of events.
Fury somehow got up and reached for the bell, and the judges’ scoreboards came back by toss. Both fighters immediately turned to a rematch, but boxing politics delayed it until early 2020.
Fury then completely dominated the second fight, beating Wilder with his superior skills until Wilder’s corner threw in the towel in the seventh round in Las Vegas. It was only Fury’s second stopping victory since 2014, and it was the culmination of Fury’s evolution from a 6-foot-9 hulk to one of the most technically skilled heavyweights of recent memory.
Fury believed that beating would settle the score, and while he doesn’t care about the massive salary in this trilogy final, the 33-year-old is thinking wisely about his legacy and the fights he needs to secure it.
“I hope he brings a better fight, because the last fight was disappointing, to say the least”, said Fury. “I trained for absolute war, and it was a one-sided beating, so I hope he can challenge me.”
Wilder claims he has “nothing to prove” in the fight, though he stubbornly exercised his rematch clause after his loss and persisted through an arbitration process that forced Fury to call off an already heralded showdown with Joshua in Saudi Arabia over the summer. The fight was originally scheduled for July before a COVID-19 outbreak in Camp Fury forced a three-month postponement at the heart of the busy fall combat sports calendar.
Wilder has more to gain than Fury from this third meeting. The American’s loss to Fury was his first loss since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and his irritated and sometimes deranged reaction to the loss has left all but the steadfast supporters scratching their heads at his attitude.
But when the heavyweights meet on Saturday night, Wilder will be one punch away from once again altering the course of two careers that will be forever linked by the kind of fighting streak that rarely occurs in modern sport.
“I have nothing to lose and everything to gain” Wilder said. “Your heritage does not die until the desire for sport dies. I am alive and well at the moment.
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