Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder 3 live results and analysis

Tyson Fury defends his WBC heavyweight world title and the heavyweight lineal championship against Deontay Wilder on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ PPV, 9 p.m. ET, with preliminary fights starting at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and ESPN+).

Fury won the title from Wilder with a seventh-round TKO victory in February 2020, the rematch of a disputed split draw back in 2018. Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), 33, of Manchester, England, has promised another KO victory and said he will send Wilder to an early retirement.

“He’s in denial, and he’s getting knocked out,” Fury said during a news conference on Wednesday. “His legacy is in bits. I knocked him out, and now I’m going to retire him.”

Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), 35, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said the fight Saturday will be one to remember and is confident he will be on top this time around.

“I don’t have anything to prove,” Wilder said. “I’m in a great place and in a great state of mind. I have a lot of great people around me. This fight is about redemption, retaliation and retribution.

“Saturday night is going to be a different fight. It’s rare that we get trilogies like this, and I truly believe this one is going down in history.”

Also on the card, heavyweight power puncher Efe Ajagba takes on Frank Sanchez in a 10-round heavyweight battle, and Jared Anderson takes on Vladimir Tereshkin in an eight-round heavyweight bout. Super middleweight Edgar Berlanga, who saw his 16-fight KO streak end back in April, returns to face Marcelo Esteban Coceres in a 10-round fight.

Follow along as Mike Coppinger and Brett Okamoto recap all the action from Las Vegas, or watch the fights on ESPN+ PPV.

Fight in progress: Edgar Berlanga vs. Marcelo Esteban Coceres, 10 rounds, super middleweights

Results:

Hernandez upsets Williams in split-decision win

Stockton, California’s Vladimir Hernandez (31-2-1, 16 KOs) pulled off a significant upset over Julian Williams (27-3-1, 16 KOs), spoiling Williams’ return to the ring. Following 10 hard-fought rounds, two judges awarded the junior middleweight bout to Hernandez 97-93 and 96-94. A third had it 96-94 for Williams.

Fighting out of Philadelphia, Williams was heavily favored in the contest despite a 20-month layoff. This was William’s first fight since losing the WBA and IBF titles to Jeison Rosario via fifth-round TKO in January 2020. He was supposed to fight twice in the last year, but his return was postponed due to injury and testing positive for Covid-19. With a win, Williams, 31, had his eye on IBF, WBA and WBC champ Jermell Charlo. Instead he fell to 0-2 in his last two.

According to Compubox, Williams outlanded Hernandez in punches 70 to 60 through the first five rounds. Hernandez went on to outland him 77-42 through the final five.

Hernandez picked up the win despite suffering a cut near his left eye in the very first round. The cut opened wider throughout the bout, but did not stop Hernandez from applying constant pressure. It was Hernandez’s pace and pressure that turned the fight, as he dominated the later rounds as Williams slowed down.

Ramirez dominates Gonzalez for eighth consecutive victory

Robeisy Ramirez, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, went the 10-round distance for the first time with a unanimous-decision victory over Orlando Gonzalez in a featherweight bout.

Gonzalez (17-1, 10 KOs), a 26-year-old from Puerto Rico, suffered the first pro defeat of his career via scores of 99-91, 97-93 and 99-91. Ramirez (8-1, 4 KOs) boxed off the back foot and comfortably banked rounds against his best foe yet.

Ramirez, 27, of Cuba, lost his pro debut but has won every fight since.

Carrington scores unanimous decision in pro debut

Highly-touted amateur featherweight Bruce Carrington (1-0, 0 KOs) turned in a beauty of a pro debut, defeating Cesar Cantu (3-2, 1 KOs) via unanimous decision: 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36.

The 24-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, outclassed Cantu, 28, of Weslaco, Texas, in every facet of the bout. He hurt Cantu with an uppercut and right hand at the end of the third round. Carrington was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic boxing team in 2016. — Okamoto

Faust dominates Marshall in TKO win

Viktor Faust scored a third-round TKO of Mike Marshall to kick off the undercard of Fury-Wilder 3.

The 29-year-old heavyweight dropped Marshall in the second round and then again in the third. Immediately after the second knockdown, referee Robert Hoyle stopped the bout (at 1:49 of the round).

The Ukrainian improved to 8-0 with 6 KOs. Marshall, a 33-year-old from Danbury, Connecticut, is now 6-2-1.

Still to come:

• Title fight: Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder, 12 rounds, for Fury’s WBC heavyweight title

• Efe Ajagba vs. Frank Sanchez, 10 rounds, heavyweights

• Robert Helenius vs. Adam Kownacki, 12 rounds, heavyweights

• Jared Anderson vs. Vladimir Tereshkin, 8 rounds, heavyweights