Tyson Fury v Deontay Wilder III: WBC heavyweight boxing championship – live! – The Guardian

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.

• Robert Helenius DQ 6 Adam Kownacki, 12 rounds, heavyweights
• Jared Anderson TKO 2 Vladimir Tereshkin, eight rounds, heavyweights
• Edgar Berlanga UD 10 Marcelo Esteban Coceres, 10 rounds, super middleweights
• Vladimir Hernandez SD 10 Julian Williams, 10 rounds, junior middleweights
• Robeisy Ramirez UD 10 Orlando Gonzalez, 10 rounds, featherweights
• Bruce Carrington UD 4 Cesar Cantu, four rounds, featherweights
• Viktor Faust KO 3 Mike Marshall, eight rounds, heavyweights

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.