Before Saturday night, many people expected Tyson Fury to have a duplicate performance of what happened on June 15th where he had a quick night against Tom Schwarz getting a 2nd round stoppage. That was far from what people witnessed at the T-Mobile Arena. Fury got through 12 rounds against previously unbeaten Otto Wallin to get a unanimous decision victory with scores of 116-112, 117-111, and 118-110 and stay unbeaten (29-0-1) but he had to endure a huge obstacle early in the fight.

In the third round, a punch by Wallin caused a huge cut above Fury’s right eye that made it tough for him to see out of that eye and he had to deal with a constant pressure attack from the Swede in the early rounds before getting back in the fight after the 5th. There were times that Wallin made it difficult for Fury to get back in it as he was able to get inside before Fury could throw any punches, and at the end of one round Wallin seemed to rake the eye that was severely cut while referee Tony Weeks was not in view to see it. The 30 to 1 underdog was able to connect on 125 total punches on Tyson Fury, which was the most punches landed on Fury in his pro career according to CompuBox.

Even though there were good moments from Wallin, Fury did show how resilient he could be as he responded to the danger of having the fight stopped by throwing some big punches of his own that had Wallin in trouble at times but not enough to knock him down. There were moments where you could see that Fury wanted to hurt Wallin with the punches that he was throwing, but the Swede was still game up until the 12th round, where he gave his last effort for the victory. It did seem that he was close as he did rock Fury a couple of times in that round but it ended with Fury coming out as the winner.

After the decision came down, Fury gave lots of respect to Otto Wallin and gave condolences to his father who had passed away earlier this year. “Congrats to Otto – and God bless his father and let him rest in peace,” Fury said. “He would be very proud of Otto’s performance.”

“It was a great fight. I got cut [in the third round] on the eyelid and [it] changed the fight completely. I couldn’t see out of the eye, and there was a lot of [head] clashes. Otto Wallin is a tough Swede. Blood, guts, heart, all shown tonight.”

The underdog who suffered his first pro loss was disappointed that he lost given that the chance to score a huge upset in Las Vegas. “I did everything I could. I tried my best,” Wallin said after the fight. “I tried to hit (the cut) even more (than I did). I know it was a punch that did it, and I was happy that he was cut, but I wish that I could have capitalized even more on it.”

Even though he came out on the short end, he found out that he could hang with who many consider as one of the best fighter in the heavyweight division.

“It tells me that nobody can question my heart and question that I’m a good fighter.”

For Fury, he now looks to heal his injuries and look forward to the rematch with WBC champion Deontay Wilder. It is scheduled for February 22nd next year, but with the severity of the cuts that Fury suffered he would be cutting close to not making that date. However, that didn’t stop him from sending Wilder a message.

“Deontay Wilder! I want you next, bum!!!”