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At last, Deontay Wilder congratulates Tyson Fury

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Five days after their third head-to-head matchup, Deontay Wilder has sent a message of gratitude to Tyson Fury. 

In a post on Instagram, Wilder congratulated Fury on his win and “for the great historical memories that will last forever.”

Wilder also wrote that he was disappointed with the final result, but was proud of what he accomplished along the way:

“We didn’t get the win but a wise man once said the victories are within the lessons. I’ve learned that sometimes you have to lose to win. Although, I wanted the win I enjoyed seeing the fans win even more. Hopefully, I proved that I am a true Warrior and a true King in this sport. Hopefully, WE proved that no matter how hard you get hit with trials and tribulations you can always pick yourself up to live and fight again for what you believe in.”

Fury and Wilder had a long, winding road to get to their third fight. Their first bout in December 2018 ended in a draw. 

Rather than go to an immediate rematch, Fury and Wilder both had two fights before they agreed to a second matchup in February 2020. The original agreement included a clause that would allow the loser to trigger an automatic third fight. 

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Fury left no doubt about the outcome in this second meeting. He won via seventh-round TKO to capture the WBC and The Ring heavyweight titles. It was the first career loss for Wilder in 43 professional fights. 

Fury’s camp entered into negotiations with Anthony Joshua for a heavyweight title fight in Saudi Arabia, but an arbitrator ruled in May that Fury had to fight Wilder before Sept. 15. 

The fight was scheduled for Oct. 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Both fighters were knocked down multiple times in the matchup.

Fury ultimately prevailed when he knocked down Wilder in the 11th round, prompting referee Russell Mora to call for the bell. The English superstar improved his career record to 31-0-1 and retained both of his titles. 

-Bleacherreport

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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