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Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 1

December 1, 2018 (Staples Center, Los Angeles)
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A good fight between elite heavyweights deserves to be celebrated. (Esther Lin/Showtime)

The first fight between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0 at the time), the knockout artist from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and lineal and former unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (27-0), the towering boxing wunderkind from Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom, at the Staples Center in LA in December 1, 2018, lived up to expectations and then some. The bull/matador, hunter/hunted comparisons still suffice when discussing the first fight, as their different styles meshed as though made for each other. Both men are giants. They dwarf the heavyweight champions of the past. Wilder at 6-foot-7 is the smaller man, but he’s built like tight end with shoulders as wide as a country road. His muscles have muscles, his tattoos have tattoos, and while hardly nimble, he can turn out the lights with a single punch. Fury stands at 6-foot-9 inches. He’s been ducking under doorframes forever and is as big as a basketball player. But through some combination of hard work, genetic disposition, a little luck and uncharted destiny, he somehow ended up being able to box like Muhammad Ali. The final decision in their first fight is disputed to this day, but a good fight between elite heavyweights deserves to be celebrated. It also deserves a rematch.

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