On December 1, 2018, Tyson “Gypsy King” Fury, 30, of Manchester, England, United Kingdom challenged reigning World Boxing Council Heavyweight Champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder, 33, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, United States. Both boxers entered the ring as undefeated fighters.
Jack Reiss served as the referee of the WBC World Heavyweight Championship bout betwen Fury and Wilder. The judges were Alejandro Rochin, Robert Tapper and Phil Edwards.
After 12 rounds, the contest was left in the hands of the judges. It was a tie for Edwards who gave it a 113-113 assessment.
Rochin scored it 115-111 in favor of Wilder. In contrast, Tapper scored it 110-114 in favor of Fury.
Since the bout ended in a split draw, the WBC Heavyweight Championship title still belongs to Wilder. He now holds a professional boxing record of 40 wins, 0 loss and 1 draw.
This is the first time for both Wilder and Fury to have a draw result in their respective records. The Manchester native now has 27 wins, 0 loss and 1 draw.
Before facing Fury, Wilder successfully defended as the WBC Heavyweight Championship seven times. He has been holding the title since January 17, 2015 when he defeated Bermane Stiverne, 40, of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via unanimous decision.
Wilder was coming out of a technical knockout victory over Luis Ortiz, 39, of Cuba on March 3, 2018. On the other hand, Fury was coming out of a points decision victory over Francesco Pianeta, 34, of Italy on August 18, 2018.
On November 28, 2015, Fury won the unified International Boxing Federation, International Boxing Organization, World Boxing Association (Super), World Boxing Organization, The Ring magazine and lineal heavyweight world titles. He defeated Wladimir Klitschko, 42, of Kiev, Ukraine via unanimous decision.
Fury was unable to grant a fight against mandatory challenger Vyacheslav “The Czar” Glazkov, 34, of Lugansk, Ukraine after agreeing to a rematch with Klitschko before the end of 2015. Because of this, Fury was stripped of the IBF title.
The rematch between Fury and Klitschko has yet to happen. In 2016, the former vacated the WBA, WBO, IBO and lineal titles and in 2018, he was stripped of his The Ring title after more than two years of inactivity.
Here are Wilder and Fury in their post-fight press conference:
CONAN Daily 