,Tyson Fury is still undefeated after he got up from two knockdowns in the fourth round of his thrilling heavyweight title clash against Deontay Wilder at the weekend.
Fury got up off the canvas in the last round of their first fight, which ended in a draw, in 2018 before taking the American’s belt 20 months ago.
Wilder, 35, enforced a rematch clause but in the final instalment of the trilogy Fury dominated from the middle rounds and in the 11th round the referee called an end to the combat at the MGM Grand Garden Arena after the American was savagely floored by the “Gypsy King”.
At the pre-fight press conference last week Fury had told Wilder: "Your legacy will be in tatters. Torn to bits. Finished”.
At the pre-fight press conference last week Fury had told Wilder: "Your legacy will be in tatters. Torn to bits. Finished”.
That may not be the case as Wilder’s heroics may have actually burnished, rather than tarnished, his legacy.
The Fury-Wilder saga may go down in history alongside that other great boxing trilogy - Muhammad Ali against Joe Frazier, which ended with the Thrilla in Manila in 1975.
Bob Arum, who co-promoted the bout and has been in boxing since the 1960s, said afterwards: “I’ve been in the business 57 years and I have never seen a heavyweight fight as magnificent as this”.
And what of Fury?
He is now 33 and may not have too many fights left in the tank.
But what does he need to do to make himself the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) or at least put him in a class where boxing afficionados would put him on a par with legends of the ring like Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson and Rocky Marciano?
Firstly, he needs to become the undisputed champion of the world.
That means adding the WBA, IBF and WBO titles to his WBC belt.
The Ukrainian, Oleksandr Usyk, holds those three titles, having ripped them out of the possession of Britain’s Anthony Joshua in London last month.
Last week, Joshua signed on for a rematch with Usyk, which is due to take place in March 2022.
Fury is likely to kill time by fighting the WBC’s mandatory challenger, Dillian Whyte - possibly at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium - before meeting either Usyk or Joshua in a mouth-watering super-fight next summer.
Victory in that contest would put Fury in a class of his own.
The last undisputed heavyweight champion of the world was Lennox Lewis more than 20 years ago.
Lewis, now 56, said: “Tyson Fury is the number one heavyweight in the world…I think he’s the king of the division right now”.
But boxing being boxing there would almost certainly be a rematch clause in a fight contract with Usyk or Joshua, so unless he knocks out his opponent with such brutality that they waive it, he will not be able to rest easy until 2023.
There are several up and coming heavyweights out there who would like to take a pop at Fury - Britain’s Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois, France’s Tony Yoka, Filip Hrgovic from Croatia and US-based Cuban Frank Sanchez, who won on the undercard of Fury-Wilder 3.
But by 2023 Fury will be 35 and the Gypsy King may just decide he has done enough and will retire gracefully with his faculties hopefully intact to enjoy the rest of his life with his wife Paris and six children.
If he has beaten Dillian Whyte and either Anthony Joshua or Olesksandr Usyk (possibly twice) then he can claim to be the greatest heavyweight of the 21st century, possibly even the GOAT.
Fury is already convinced. He said after the fight on Saturday: “Am I the greatest heavyweight of my era? Without a doubt. I believe I could beat anyone in history”.