Tyson Fury Defends His WBC World Heavyweight Title By Defeating Dillian Whyte

Tyson Fury beat Dillian Whyte with a huge sixth round stoppage to retain his WBC world heavyweight title, in front of 94,000 people at Wembley.

Fury marked his return to the UK, and his first ever world title defence against anyone other than Deontay Wilder, by knocking out domestic rival Whyte.

It was a controlled performance throughout the five full rounds from the 33-year-old, and it would have been difficult to give his opponents any of them.

However he wasn't dominating in a way that he had in the second fight against Wilder and a stoppage wasn't looking particularly close to coming as the sixth round started.

But he did it in spectacular fashion, as he jabbed Whyte to distance to give himself the perfect set up to land a brilliant uppercut, that sent Whyte crashing to the mat and ending it by TKO.

Fury hadn't fought in Britain since 2018, with his most recent fight on home shores coming in Northern Ireland, and had since fought only in the United States.

He'd previously stated that he might never fight in the UK again but the fight with Whyte brought him back to England, in a sold out Wembley.

The Gypsy King was the favourite ahead of the fight, despite his opponent being a very real threat to his undefeated professional record.

Whyte had waited over 1000 days as the WBC's number one contender, despite a break in that ranking following his shock loss to Alexander Povetkin.

Fury had claimed in the build up to the fight that it would be his last, and the video that played just before his ring walk, to Don McClean's American Pie, hinted that would be the case.

A tentative first round was mainly made interesting by the fact that the challenger chose to box southpaw early on, but it was the defending champion who landed the best shot of the opener, landing a decent counter right hand with 40 seconds to go.

The champ was very much on top in the second three minute stanza as Whyte struggled to close the distance between him and the taller man.

Once again the third round was for the undefeated fighter, as he continued to control the fight at distance in the main.

There was controversy in the fourth, as an issue when the the pair were told to break by the referee led to the third man in the ring giving both fighters a ticking off. It left Whyte with a cut.

Another clinch late in the round once again saw the challenger get a telling off, when he seemed to land a couple of shots to the back of the head, whilst it also looked like some water was thrown by someone in the crowd towards the fighters.

Fury definitely stepped up the pace towards the end of the fifth round and a combination of shots seemed to stun the Body Snatcher momentarily, before he tried firing back with a couple of his own body shots.

The challengers frustration began to really show and he started throwing more and more wild shots, whilst the champ was at ease, jabbing away to his heart's content.

And in the sixth round, Fury ended it all with a huge right handed uppercut, Whyte got to his feet in time but he couldn't hold himself up and flopped to the ropes, as the ref stopped him from hitting the ground.

It was the third time in his career that the 34-year-old had been finished by an uppercut, having previously been finished by both Anthony Joshua and Povetkin in similar circumstances.

If it is indeed Fury's final fight of his career then it was a hell of a way to go out, but one expects he'll eventually fight either Joshua or Oleksandr Usyk, in an attempt to unify all the heavyweight titles.