Tyson Fury vs Otto Wallin: Bloody Fury reminds fans he can fight as well as box with gritty win

Gypsy King got what he needed – if not what he wanted – as preparation for a rematch with Deontay Wilder continued

The blood was pumping from Tyson Fury’s wounds for nine rounds, the referee and the doctor were poised to stop the fight, and every surface in the ring was stained.

This was real boxing, a real fight, and there was – in the end – no happy carnival here; no one laughing and joking as they filed away from another Fury blowout.

The towering Gypsy King, always quick with a song and a dance, had to move his feet to another rhythm to make sure of victory.

The truth is that the expected massacre in the T-Mobile Arena ring in Las Vegas came very close to being a bloody disaster late on Saturday night when Sweden’s Otto Wallin, with the help of two grisly cuts above Fury’s right eye, nearly ruined every plan.

At the end of 12 rounds, Fury’s facial wounds no longer pumping dark blood down his cheek, there was no doubt about the decision in his favour, but there was a conflict of interpretation. Wallin, you see, was selected to lose with a bit of grit and dignity and not bust Fury up so bad that he went straight to hospital at the end of the fight for surgery to close the wounds.

The bold plan to have a rematch, probably back here in Las Vegas, with Deontay Wilder is still on, provisionally pencilled in on calendars for February 22nd. But the healing process on severe lacerations – there is the possibility of plastic surgery – could interfere with Fury’s plans to go to training camp. He might not be able to spar for over two months, probably longer, and that could cause a logistics problem.

Wilder, meanwhile, is supposed to have a fight in November, but that is looking increasingly unlikely – perhaps after the scare here, it is simply too big a risk to take. “It’s the heavyweight business and anything can happen and does happen,” said Frank Warren, Fury’s promoter.

The cuts changed the fight, that is without doubt, but the extra rounds were necessary for Fury, ideal preparation for what is likely to be another gruelling affair with Wilder. If Fury had done as expected and buckled Wallin’s resistance after five or six rounds, there is every chance that people would have suggested Fury needed more rounds between the twelve with Wilder last December and the prospect of twelve more next February. He got what he needed and certainly not what he wanted against Wallin.

Fury was left covered in his own blood (Getty)

Fury’s fitness was tested, his nerve was tested during the inspection by the doctor, and he remained calm both in the corner – as his cuts man, Jorge Capetillo, used his potions and craft to control the bleeding as best he could – and during the rounds when Wallin was rough and relentless. It was, in the end, an old-fashioned brawl, a real shock to the senses, and dozens at close ringside went home from the T-Mobile with a splatter of Fury on their clothing – a novelty and unexpected souvenir.

Wallin justified his selection, fulfilled his promises and survived five or six moments when he was hurt, dazed and being pushed all over the ring. Fury used his bulk brilliantly at times, but it was not a flawless performance; it was a hard fight, and even if he won eight or nine of the twelve rounds, he had to fight in every single one of them, especially from the third when the blood started to flow.

“He hurt me in the last,” Fury admitted to me in the ring at the final bell.

“I told all of you that he was dangerous and that he would give me a test.

Fury and his trainer, Ben Davison, had been talking all week about Wallin – big at 6’5 and also a southpaw – and how difficult he might be. The Swede had also made pledges, realising that a “good” defeat would not harm his career.

So Fury never led the crowd in song at the end and those expecting a jolly, easy, Mexican-themed fiesta were perhaps a bit shocked by just how bloody, brutal and unpredictable two heavyweights can be in a fight that matters.

Fury knows all about fighting and bleeding and winning. On Saturday night here in Las Vegas, he just reminded a few people.