LAS VEGAS -- In what may go down as the biggest heavyweight fight of the past 20 years, Tyson Fury thoroughly dominated Deontay Wilder for seven rounds Saturday night and earned a TKO victory once Wilder's corner threw in the towel.
Wilder, who suffered the first defeat of his career, has the right to call for a third fight against Fury, but the world appears to be clamoring for a heavyweight unification bout between Fury and Anthony Joshua.
What's next for each fighter and the heavyweight division as a whole remains to be seen, but there's a lot to unpack after Saturday's historic bout. ESPN's resident boxing experts Dan Rafael and Steve Kim are here to break it all down.
What was the difference in the rematch?
Rafael: Fury fought entirely differently than he did the first time, just as he said he would. He used his boxing skills and hand speed in the first fight to outbox Wilder for much of the fight, but when he got only a draw out of it, he said he needed to change things up. He did just that. He and his new trainer, SugarHill Steward, decided to go right after Wilder. Bully the bully, if you will. So instead of relying on his skills, Fury attacked Wilder from the outset and never stopped firing shots and moving forward. It worked, because he hurt Wilder several times, dropped him twice and ultimately won by technical knockout.
Kim: Fury understood that by being more aggressive -- stepping to Wilder and backing him up -- that he took the play away from Wilder. Then, as he started to beat Wilder to the punch, the fight became incredibly easy for him. Not only was Fury the superior boxer, but on this particular evening, he was the more potent puncher. Tonight his offensive attack had a real purpose to it.
There was a variety of right hands (both of the straight and the overhand variety), and in this fight, as he got close, he mixed in some body shots -- one of which sent Wilder down to the canvas. Ahead of this fight, Fury insisted that the version of him that Wilder fought in 2018 was still suffering from some ring rust and therefore wasn't nearly as confident as he needed to be in terms of being assertive and taking advantage of offensive opportunities. This time around, he was the bully, as he didn't just box Wilder -- he backed him up and then hurt him on multiple occasions. From the time Wilder hit the canvas in the third, you got the sense that it was Fury's night.
In their first encounter, Fury made Wilder miss but didn't make him pay enough. In the rematch, he stepped to Wilder and dominated from both a technical and physical perspective.
How did the trainer change impact Fury?
Rafael: It obviously helped a lot, because he won. Had Fury lost, everyone would say it was a terrible move. SugarHill is a more offensive-minded trainer than Ben Davison, whom Fury parted ways with heading into this fight, and he had Fury fight a far more offense-oriented bout. As it turned out, Fury's decision to make the change worked out very well.
Kim: There is that old axiom that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, in this case, it was improved, as Fury put forth a career-best outing. SugarHill certainly has to be given credit for the role he played in preparing Fury for this rematch. This was an effort that the late, great trainer Emanuel Steward would be proud of, because not only did Fury win, he won with a certain mentality, by stepping right into the eye of the storm and shooting a hard 1-2 down the middle to back up Wilder.
After the fight, Andy Lee, who was a Kronk protege and assisted Hill throughout this camp, said that they absolutely worked on being the aggressive fighter for this bout. If Fury sensed a right hand from Wilder, he was instructed to just step out of range. But for the most part, he was supposed to make sure he was pushing back Wilder. If you go back and look at Wilder's highlights, they are exclusively of him stepping forward, creating momentum for his preferred weapon.
Sometimes the best defense is a really good offense. Fury fought like a classic Kronk boxer. He was bold, brave and technically sound. The only thing missing were the gold trunks.
What happened to Wilder?
Rafael: He got nailed and hurt early. Once his legs were shaky and he began to tire, he wasn't able to throw the right with full power. Wilder also said after the fight that he "had a lot of things going on heading into this fight." So while he did not elaborate, perhaps there was something that drained his focus on this night.
And then there is this: He lost to the better man on the night. It happens.
Kim: Very simply, Fury happened to him. Sometimes the guy across from you is simply superior. It's crystal clear that Fury is just the better all-around prizefighter. From the third round on, after Wilder hit the canvas twice, you got the sense that on this particular evening, there wasn't going to be the proverbial grand slam from Wilder that would bail him out.
In the past, when Wilder got hurt, he found ways to recover relatively quickly and found a way to win the fight. In this rematch, he was put down and then simply pushed around the ring, even manhandled at times. Without his legs underneath him, there was simply no way Wilder could muster up the type of right hands that are his trademark.
Also, while much was made of Fury coming in significantly heavier for the rematch (from 256.6 pounds to 273), perhaps not enough attention was paid to how Wilder came in nearly 19 pounds bigger (212.5 to 231) than their initial matchup. Wilder is a fast, twitchy, sinewy athlete. Perhaps that extra bulk just weighed him down.
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