Tyson Fury, a.k.a. the "Gypsy King", has defended his title as boxing champion of the world

The boxer nicknamed the "Gypsy King", Tyson Fury, has defended his title as heavyweight world champion. He defeated Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas with a knockout in the 11th round and remains undefeated in his third duel with his American rival.

The first Fury-Wilder match was a draw during which Fury defended his title, but during the rematch in February 2020 Fury clearly exceeded the American to become the champion. On Saturday, 9 October 2021, the 33-year-old Fury maintained his invincibility during his second rematch with Wilder and his 32nd match overall in the professional ring.   

Wilder is turning 36 this month and left his own 45th professional contest with the second defeat of his career. The boxers, both of whom are more than two meters tall, engaged in yet another exhausting, open battle in Las Vegas before an audience of 15 820 people.

Fury sent Wilder to the mat in the third round, ended up on his knees himself in the fourth, and was down for the count twice, only to be saved by the bell. After half of the fight, Fury was still slightly on top, according to the referees, and his better condition also began to show. 

In the 10th round, Wilder again could not withstand Fury's right hook, but the "Gypsy King's" gesture of victory was premature. The battle ended in the next round with another right hook.

"That was a brilliant match. I've always said I am the best boxer in the world, and I've proved it. He's the next best." Fury said. "Never doubt me. When push comes to shove, I always come through."

Fury was born in Manchester, England into a family of Irish Travellers. His father named him Tyson after boxing champion Mike Tyson.

His ethnicity something of which Fury is proud. "I'm proud of who I am," he has said of his origins.

"My Traveller origins give me the determination and the will to win, to go to the absolute limit. There's no defeat in me. As a Traveller, I never regret anything. I know what I have to do and how to go forward," Fury has previously said.

Travellers represent an originally non-Romani, non-sedentary population who probably existed in the British Isles before the arrival of the first Romani people there at the beginning of the 16th century. Since in those days Romani people and Travellers both lived on the road, their mutual interconnections became intensified by marriages between the two groups, and until very recently the non-Roma, non-Traveller population has essentially perceived them to be a homogeneous group.