In the run-up to the fight between the star heavyweights, one of the main intrigues was whether it would be the last for Tyson Fury.

Over the past few weeks, he has repeatedly spoken about his intention to end his career and promised to do so immediately after the fight with his compatriot.

And although during his career the Gypsy King made many high-profile statements, which he later denied himself, this time there were enough reasons to believe in their veracity.

The trilogy with Deontay Wilder took too much from the Englishman, both physically and emotionally.

And it could well completely deprive him of the desire to go through grueling workouts and put his health at stake.

Nevertheless, he approached the battle with Dillian Whyte in excellent form by his standards.

Since the last fight, he has lost more than five kilograms and showed the smallest weight since the meeting with Otto Wallin in 2019 (120.1 kilograms), which in theory should have made him more agile and faster.

And this prompted thoughts about Fury's possible plan for the fight.

If in October 2021 he bet on power and literally crushed Wilder, this time he was going to work more measuredly and remind himself of a model of confrontation with Wladimir Klitschko.

Then he outboxed the Ukrainian and proved that he is one of the most flexible and technical heavyweights of our time.

And in the future duel, the bet on speed seemed logical.

White was much more massive than Wilder, and it was hard to imagine that Fury could crush him as easily as the previous opponent.

So, the former world heavyweight champion Tony Bellew not only called Dillian a “real block”, but also noted his ability to fight at close range.

At the same time, he considered his blows to the body to be especially dangerous, which was hinted at by his nickname Body Snatcher.

But in order to use his main weapon and try to grope Fury's liver and spleen, White needed to get through the stinging jabs and get in close proximity to the 206-cm counterpart.

And with that, he immediately had problems.

And this is not surprising, because over the past four years he has only fought once with a boxer of similar dimensions.

With the exception of Mariusz Wach, all of his opponents were either the same height as him or shorter.

In the new conditions for himself, he was noticeably confused and at first could not find a solution to the problem.

Even a curious idea with a change of racks did not help, when the right-handed White unexpectedly chose to retrain as a left-hander.

On paper, this looked pretty original, but in reality it did not give him any superiority over Fury.

He hit great from a distance, worked great with his feet and practically did not feel a couple of missed hooks to the body.

Tyson was more active and sharper.

Over the next two, Fury's advantage only grew.

Yes, he obviously did not want to pounce on the enemy the way he did in the duel with Wilder, but methodically “shoot” him from a safe distance.

Not without provocations.

So, at the beginning of the second three-minute period, Fury himself switched to left-handedness and powerfully hit the jab several times, but quickly returned to his usual orthodox stance.

For the first time, passions broke out at the 15th second of the fourth round.

Moreover, it was White who provoked the conflict, by this time he had already managed to start up in order.

The challenger aggressively went to the champion and collided with his heads, and then tried with all his might to push him out of the ring, accompanying this with blows to the head.

A skirmish ensued between the rivals, and the referee had to stop the fight for almost half a minute.

All the more curious that Dillian himself suffered.

He had a nasty cut over his right eye.

However, it didn't end there.

A minute later, Fury grabbed White with a stranglehold and did not let go until the judge wedged between the athletes, and at the end of the segment the atmosphere heated up to the limit.

Another clinch in the corner ended with a series of blows to the back of the head performed by Dillian, which angered Tyson's seconds.

The champion's younger brother Shane splashed water on his opponent, but failed to cool him down.

One way or another, a series of dirty tricks performed by White did nothing to help him seize the initiative.

He also lost the fifth round, and even almost ended up on the canvas after a right straight from Fury.

It seemed that Dillian lost his balance precisely after the hit, but on replay it became clear that Tyson stepped on his foot along the way.

Everything went to the fact that the prediction of the legendary Lennox Lewis would come true, and the battle for the WBC title would last all the planned 12 rounds.

The challenger still relied on a single blow and could not get close to the champion, and he was not going to turn on the maximum speed and by all means try to put the enemy on the floor.

Therefore, what happened ten seconds before the end of the sixth segment was a real surprise.

Tyson lulled the opponent's attention, "dazzled" him with a jab and immediately threw out a powerful uppercut.

He hit right on target and sent Dillian to the floor.

The Englishman miraculously managed to get up, but staggered and almost collapsed again.

The referee immediately reacted to this and stopped the fight.

Fury won his 32nd fight in his career and remained undefeated.

As for the end of his career, the current champion did not give a clear answer.

According to him, he promised his wife to leave the sport after the third battle with Wilder, but really wanted to speak at Wembley, so he agreed to face White.

Speaking about the future, Tyson did not rule out that this fight could be his last, and at the same time he agreed to a meeting with Francis Ngannou.

The current UFC heavyweight champion personally climbed into the ring and announced that their future duel would be held under hybrid rules.

The fight itself will take place in a quadrangle, while instead of boxing opponents will wear MMA gloves.