Tyson Fury stuns Wladimir Klitschko to become world heavyweight champion

The long-reigning king of the big men was out-thought and out-classed by the younger, slicker man as Fury ended his nine-year winning run in Dusseldorf.

Over the course of 12 rounds, Fury gave Klitschko all he could handle and more, dominating the contest in a way that the giant Ukrainian has never experienced before.

It was Fury’s 25th professional victory and he will cash in on the win, regardless of his fight purse, having bet £200,000 ($A418,000) on himself.

Klitschko imperiously ruled the division for 11 years, taking on all-comers and dispatching them with technical efficiency and ease, but was sometimes, unfairly, derided for being boring.

Fury’s trainer, his uncle Peter, said his charge would get even better and predicted the result of the rematch would be the same.

Fury had a point deducted by American referee Tony Weekes for punching the back of the Klitschko’s head but that did not change the outcome as the Briton finally had a heavyweight boxing champion again.

But once the fight started, the fooling stopped and he thoroughly flummoxed his opponent with an unorthodox southpaw style. I got beaten and I lost the battle but I did not lose the fighter.

Tyson Fury’s promoter Mick Hennessy has backed his man to knock out Wladimir Klitschko if a rematch between the pair takes place.

And he added: “I just want to thank everyone for
coming and just want you to keep on supporting me because I’m the new heavyweight champion of the world”. “And if I could just say one thing, if I could be half as good as champion as Vladimir Klitschko I’d be very, very happy”. People can say what they want about me.

“I can’t see Klitschko going back in the ring and doing that again”.

The challenger went into the bout full of confidence and insisted that he would be able to return home with the belts against a champion that he believed was in decline at 39 years of age.

“I knew this 27 years ago: The minute he came into the world, he was special”. Then: “Why do we need to mention Deontay Wilder?”. Let’s have a laugh at his name. “I waited in line and earned the right to fight”. I wish I would have landed more clean shots. The 6-foot-9 Fury became the first British heavyweight champion since David Haye and the first lineal heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis’ retirement in 2004.