Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder 3 live results and analysis

Tyson Fury defends his WBC heavyweight world title and the heavyweight lineal championship against Deontay Wilder on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ PPV, 9 p.m. ET, with preliminary fights starting at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and ESPN+).

Fury won the title from Wilder with a seventh-round TKO victory in February 2020, the rematch of a disputed split draw back in 2018. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), 33, of Manchester, England, has promised another KO victory and said he will send Wilder to an early retirement.

“He’s in denial, and he’s getting knocked out,” Fury said during a news conference on Wednesday. “His legacy is in bits. I knocked him out, and now I’m going to retire him.”

Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), 35, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said the fight Saturday will be one to remember and is confident he will be on top this time around.

“I don’t have anything to prove,” Wilder said. “I’m in a great place and in a great state of mind. I have a lot of great people around me. This fight is about redemption, retaliation and retribution.

“Saturday night is going to be a different fight. It’s rare that we get trilogies like this, and I truly believe this one is going down in history.”

Follow along as Mike Coppinger and Brett Okamoto recap all the action from Las Vegas, or watch the fights on ESPN+ PPV.

Fight in progress: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder, 12 rounds, for Fury’s WBC heavyweight title – Buy the ESPN+ PPV here.

And the fight starts…

Judges for the fight: Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld, all from Las Vegas. Referee is Russell Mora.

Ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. is doing the pre-fight presentations. T-Mobile Arena seems to be packed.

Fury, dressed as some kind of Roman gladiator makes his way to the ring. Hiw walkout music? ACDC’s You Shook Me All Night Long.

Now Big E introduces WBC champion Tyson Fury.

WWE champion Big E introducing Deontay Wilder, who walks to the ring rapidly wearing a black and red robe with a red and silver mask.

Both fighters seems to be ready, but Wilder is still not coming out.

Next is the fighters walkouts. Wilder will be first as he is the challenger this time.

Now is Brandon Brighman with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Danny Walten is signing the National Royal Anthem, “God Save the Queen.”

Results:

Sanchez outpoints Ajagba for decision win

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Frank Sanchez lands a vicious punch on Efe Ajagba in Round 7 while Ajagba’s knee appears to be on the mat.

A heavyweight matchup between Frank Sanchez and Efe Ajagba struggled to produce action, as the two combined to land just 110 punches over the course of 10 rounds. In the end, it was Sanchez (19-0, 13 KOs), 29, of Cuba, who kept his perfect record intact, via judges’ scores of 98-91, 98-91 and 97-92.

There was really only one moment of drama in the bout, when Sanchez scored a knockdown in the seventh round. Ajagba (15-1, 12 KOs), 27, of Nigeria, took a knee after a Sanchez right hand. As Ajagba’s knee was on the canvas, Sanchez landed an illegal left hand that knocked him completely to the floor. Sanchez was warned but not penalized.

Beyond that, the fight mostly consisted of Sanchez landing quick counters to Ajaba’s power shot attempts. Ajagba took the center of the ring mostly, and looked to assert his jab and right hand, but he was predictable with both and Sanchez did well avoiding damage.

Fans inside T-Mobile booed the lack of action from time to time, but it was nevertheless a clear win for Sanchez. He moves to 2-0 in 2021.

Helenius dominates, stops Kownacki again

For the second consecutive fight Robert Helenius pummeled Adam Kownacki and on Saturday night, Helenius scored a a TKO victory that will put their rivalry to rest.

Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs) used his superior height and reach to connect with damaging blows at distance, closing Kownacki’s left eye and causing tremendous swelling around the other.

Kownacki (20-2, 15 KOs) was in serious trouble in Round 6 as he continued to eat punches when he landed a second low blow. Referee Celestino Ruiz separated the boxers, then stopped the fight at 2:38, leading to confusion over whether the fight was a disqualification or stoppage. Kownacki was previously deducted one point for a low blow in Round 5.

With the victory, Helenius, 37, of Sweden, has new life in the heavyweight division, a weight class “The Nordic Nightmare” was considered a top prospect in many years ago.

When they met in March 2020, Kownacki was stopped in the fourth round in what was considered a major upset. The Polish fighter had been riding a wave of momentum with solid victories over Charles Martin and Chris Arreola before losing to Helenius the first time. The 32-year-old action fighter is a big attraction in Brooklyn, New York, with his legion of Polish fans. But after a second TKO loss, it’s unclear where he goes from here.

Anderson stops Tereshkin, keeps KO streak alive

Heavyweight Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs), of Toledo, cruised to a second-round TKO over Russia’s Vladimir Tereshkin (22-1-1, 12 KOs).

Anderson, a sparring partner of Tyson Fury ahead of Saturday’s event, used an obvious speed advantage to just completely overwhelm Tereshkin with punches. Tereshkin tried to slow the fight down and make things ugly, but he couldn’t keep up with Anderson’s speed.

The finish came at 2:51 of the round, after Anderson walked him to a corner and landed a series of hard right hands to the chin. Tereshkin never went down, but referee Kenny Bayless did not hesitate to step in as Tereshkin’s mouthpiece drooped out of his lower lip.

Anderson has recorded knockouts in all of his fights since turning pro in Oct. 2019.

Berlanga gets knocked down, but passes toughest test of his young career

Edgar Berlanga started his career with 16 first-round knockouts in his first 16 fights. Fight 18 raised the first legitimate questions regarding his potential and the ability to realize it.

Berlanga (18-0, 16 KOs) was dropped in the ninth round, the first knockdown of his career. It’s also the first fight in which he scored no knockdowns. However, Berlanga still came through with the unanimous-decision victory over Marcelo Esteban Coceres via scores of 96-93, 96-93 and 96-93.

Berlanga’s manager, Keith Connolly, tells ESPN the super middleweight prospect suffered a left arm injury in Round 3. The 24-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, will be examined for what’s feared to be a left bicep tear.

Berlanga was slated to fight Steve Rolls on Dec. 11 in New York on the undercard of Vasiliy Lomachenko-Richard Commey. Berlanga first encountered trouble in Round 6, a frame in which Coceres (30-3-1, 16 KOs) landed a bundle of clean power shots. The 30-year-old Argentine suffered an 11th-round KO loss to Billy Joe Saunders in his lone title shot. In that November 2019 bout, Saunders was trailing on one scorecard at the time of the stoppage.

This was the first time Berglana went past eight rounds. His April victory over Demond Nicholson — a fight in which Berlanga scored four knockdowns — was an eight-round unanimous-decision win. In his last two fights, the untested Berlanga has now banked 18 rounds after logging just 16 rounds in his first 16 fights.

Hernandez upsets Williams in split-decision win

Stockton, California’s Vladimir Hernandez (31-2-1, 16 KOs) pulled off a significant upset over Julian Williams (27-3-1, 16 KOs), spoiling Williams’ return to the ring. Following 10 hard-fought rounds, two judges awarded the junior middleweight bout to Hernandez 97-93 and 96-94. A third had it 96-94 for Williams.

Fighting out of Philadelphia, Williams was heavily favored in the contest despite a 20-month layoff. This was William’s first fight since losing the WBA and IBF titles to Jeison Rosario via fifth-round TKO in January 2020. He was supposed to fight twice in the last year, but his return was postponed due to injury and testing positive for Covid-19. With a win, Williams, 31, had his eye on IBF, WBA and WBC champ Jermell Charlo. Instead he fell to 0-2 in his last two.

According to Compubox, Williams outlanded Hernandez in punches 70 to 60 through the first five rounds. Hernandez went on to outland him 77-42 through the final five.

Hernandez picked up the win despite suffering a cut near his left eye in the very first round. The cut opened wider throughout the bout, but did not stop Hernandez from applying constant pressure. It was Hernandez’s pace and pressure that turned the fight, as he dominated the later rounds as Williams slowed down.

Ramirez dominates Gonzalez for eighth consecutive victory

Robeisy Ramirez, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, went the 10-round distance for the first time with a unanimous-decision victory over Orlando Gonzalez in a featherweight bout.

Gonzalez (17-1, 10 KOs), a 26-year-old from Puerto Rico, suffered the first pro defeat of his career via scores of 99-91, 97-93 and 99-91. Ramirez (8-1, 4 KOs) boxed off the back foot and comfortably banked rounds against his best foe yet.

Ramirez, 27, of Cuba, lost his pro debut but has won every fight since.

Carrington scores unanimous decision in pro debut

Highly-touted amateur featherweight Bruce Carrington (1-0, 0 KOs) turned in a beauty of a pro debut, defeating Cesar Cantu (3-2, 1 KOs) via unanimous decision: 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36.

The 24-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, outclassed Cantu, 28, of Weslaco, Texas, in every facet of the bout. He hurt Cantu with an uppercut and right hand at the end of the third round. Carrington was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic boxing team in 2016. — Okamoto

Faust dominates Marshall in TKO win

Viktor Faust scored a third-round TKO of Mike Marshall to kick off the undercard of Fury-Wilder 3.

The 29-year-old heavyweight dropped Marshall in the second round and then again in the third. Immediately after the second knockdown, referee Robert Hoyle stopped the bout (at 1:49 of the round).

The Ukrainian improved to 8-0 with 6 KOs. Marshall, a 33-year-old from Danbury, Connecticut, is now 6-2-1.