Tyson Fury’s road to a rematch against Deontay Wilder was nearly derailed after Otto Wallin gave Fury a massive cut that would have produced one of the biggest upsets in a year full of them.
Fury scored a unanimous decision victory over Wallin in the main event of a Top Rank on ESPN+ card from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, winning with scores of 116-112, 117-111, 118-110.
The main story of the fight was a big cut over Fury’s right eye he received from a left hand landed by Wallin in the third round. With blood pouring out of Fury’s eye, it became a question of whether or not Wallin could make the cut worse by targeting it and forcing the ringside doctor to stop the fight and award Wallin the victory.
Wallin initially started to attack Fury’s body in the first few rounds until the cut started to open up. The Swedish heavyweight then tried to attack the cut and looked to make it worse through any means necessary, even rubbing the cut during a break midway through the fight.
Underdog @OttoWallin opens a cut on lineal champ @Tyson_Fury
— ESPN (@espn) September 15, 2019
https://t.co/h528zYw0NR pic.twitter.com/LYEcTM3lZy
But as Wallin tried to attack the cut, Fury started to fight more aggressively in the second half of the fight and started breaking down Wallin physically. Fury landed various combinations that staggered Wallin and although Wallin fought back, his punches were having little effect on Fury, even as the cut was opening up even more. Wallin had one last shot at stopping Fury when he caught him with a left hand in the 12th round, but Fury lasted until the end of the bout.
By the championship rounds of the fight, Fury was firmly in control of the action and looked to stop Wallin and eliminate the risk of the referee or ringside doctors stopping the fight first. Regardless, Fury’s undefeated record stayed safe and his focus is now on Wilder.
Fury and Wilder had been building up a rematch from their December 2018 fight for the WBC championship that ended in a draw. After nearly securing the rematch, the fight fell through and is now potentially slated for early 2020. Fury’s job of winning fights until 2020 is done while Wilder is headed for a yet-to-be-announced rematch against Luis Ortiz before the end of the year.
What an incredible 12 Rounds from @Tyson_Fury. --
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) September 15, 2019
-- @GEICO Photo of the Fight for #FuryWallin -- pic.twitter.com/jYf0ZptSPg
After sustaining a blow to the head, @Tyson_Fury is in a race against time to defeat Otto Wallin at #FuryWallin with the Lineal Heavyweight Championship on the line. pic.twitter.com/8CuJGU5Pdo
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) September 15, 2019
After the fight, Fury called out Wilder, saying “Deontay Wilder! I want you next you bum!” A rematch against Wilder would give Fury another opportunity to win the only major alphabet title in the heavyweight division after taking down Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 to capture the WBA, WBO and IBF titles.
