Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury was a professional boxing match contested on December 1, 2018, for the WBC Heavyweight Championship.

[2] The potential match up between Wilder and Fury had been talked about and promoted for several years prior to the fight, including by the two fighters themselves on social media.

The pair's first encounter had taken place off camera at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield in April 2014, where Wilder knocked out Audley Harrison on the undercard of Amir Khan vs. Julio Diaz, with both Wilder and Fury promising each other a fight in the future.

Wilder became the first American heavyweight world champion in nearly a decade in January 2015, after defeating Bermane Stiverne via unanimous decision in Las Vegas to pick up the WBC title, the only world heavyweight title at the time that was not held by the reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko.

[3] Fury then became champion in his first world title attempt by defeating Klitschko for the WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO, The Ring and lineal titles in Düsseldorf, Germany later that year in November 2015, ending Klitschko's decade long reign with a unanimous decision victory.

[4] Wilder made the third defence of his title in January 2016 against Artur Szpilka at the Barclays Center in New York, a fight in which Fury was in attendance.

At the end of the fight after Wilder had knocked out Szpilka in devastating fashion, in an attempt to build a future fight Fury jumped into the ring and there was a face-to-face confrontation between the two men, this time in front of the onlooking crowd and a live television audience.

Wilder replied "we all know, Fury, this is just an act, I ain't scared of nobody and I'll come to your backyard for that fight, baby!"

Fury continued the exchange, "any time any place anywhere, when you're ready, I'll fight you in your back garden like I done Klitschko I'll beat you, you bum!

With several people now separating the pair, Fury took off his jacket and threw it to the ground whilst pacing up and down talking to Wilder across the ring.

Wilder took the microphone again to tell Fury, "I don't play this, you can run around like you're a preacher and all that but I promise you when you step in this ring I will baptise you!

However, the coming months saw Fury postpone the Klitschko rematch twice, firstly due to an ankle injury in June which saw the rematch put back from July 9 to October 29 before Fury postponed a second time in September after being declared medically unfit following a positive test for cocaine.

[6] This led to Fury vacating his remaining titles in October 2016 and further problems with depression, alcohol and excessive weight gain, and being stripped of his boxing licence.

[7][8] Fury regained his boxing license and was cleared to fight again in December 2017 and began training for his comeback around the same time.

Joshua, come and see me baby, no more hiding, no more ducking, no more dodging, no more excuses, let's make the fight happen and let's see who's the best, I know I'm the best, are you up for the test?

"[9] Later that month, Joshua defeated previously unbeaten Joseph Parker via unanimous decision in a unification bout which saw him add the WBO title to his name.

However, after several months of ultimately fruitless negotiations with Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn, Wilder and manager Shelly Finkel were left to look elsewhere with Joshua instead opting to make a defence against Povetkin which would take place on September 22, whilst Fury made his return to action on June 9 after a two and a half year hiatus since his win over Klitschko, stopping Sefer Seferi in four rounds.

If you wanna fight the best this country has ever had knock on my door and see if the Gypsy King doesn't answer!

Wilder replied by saying, "There's one thing Tyson Fury has never had and that's the WBC belt, and if he ever thinks about having it he better wake up and apologise to me because he ain't never having it."

The pair posed for photographs and then had a face off, with Fury's promoter Frank Warren stating that the fight was on, with only an announcement on a date and venue in the U.S to be finalised.

[15][16] The press conferences were in the following three cities:[17][18][19] The weigh in took place on November 30, on a made platform outside the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Fury, using his unorthodox stance, spent much of the fight using upper and lower-body movement to avoid Wilder's big shots and stay out of range.

In round 4, Wilder landed multiple stiff jabs, which caused Fury's nose to bleed.

Round 7 saw both fighters trading jabs, after which Fury landed a counter right hand, which quickly tied Wilder up before he could throw anything back.

[31] A few days after the fight, Wilder claimed that nine out of ten referees would have stopped the contest immediately after the 12th round knockdown.

[32] Speaking to SiriusXM Boxing, referee Jack Reiss explained why he did not stop the fight, "I was evaluating these guys throughout the whole fight (and) in the 12th round, they'd boxed their hearts out, threw a lot of punches but there wasn't a lot of heavy damage taken by either guy.

In the meantime, Fury entered negotiations with Anthony Joshua for an undisputed heavyweight championship fight.

[42] Following the decision, Fury's co-promoter, Bob Arum, revealed a targeted date of July 24, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

[51] Showtime's delayed broadcast a week later drew an average 488,000 viewers, peaking at 590,000, in the United States.