Sunday 29 November 2015 13:10, UK
Tyson Fury shocked the world to dislodge Wladimir Klitschko as the heavyweight champion, but what have we learned?
Klitschko's mighty reign at the top of boxing's most glorious division came crumbling down as the heavyweight belts were brought to England on Saturday night, with Fury winning a unanimous decision.
Sky Sports discusses the talking points from Fury's win...
As Fury shimmied and Ali-shuffled across the ring with his tongue cheekily out, barking abuse at the champion that followed him, a glint emerged in his eye that he had known what he was doing all along. The shocking reality quickly became clear, as the mechanical Klitschko lost blood and dignity in chasing his challenger, that Fury's rock-solid self-belief was rooted in masterful planning and preparation.
This wasn't the type of one-punch knockout that underdogs desperately cling onto, yet so rarely actually occur. Fury bobbed and weaved past a far more experienced and favoured opponent for the majority of the 12 rounds, to the extent where all three ringside judges awarded him the sort of decision that previous English boxers on German soil could only have dreamed of.
The only doubt surrounding Fury's superiority at the final bell was in the judges' competence, as even Klitschko's half-hearted celebration seemed contrived. The manner of Fury's ability to maintain a higher work-rate, not be drawn into the clinch and work on the outside all indicate the changing of the guard from an older to a younger man. Would things be different in a rematch? Klitschko could be 40 by then, and those legs won't find it any easier to keep pace with the stance-changing, bobbing and weaving Fury.
The challenger and his street-wise entourage had a savvy understanding of the fact fights of this magnitude begin far sooner than the opening bell. The distraction techniques employed so ruthlessly by Team Klitschko in the past were ineffective against this latest opponent and eruditely used against the veteran champion.
First, there was the issue of the gloves. Klitschko's manager Bernd Boente, every bit a cartoon villain when he politely insisted it was an innocent mix-up that led to Fury being given a pair that didn't fit, was thwarted. He seemed visibly ruffled in his expensive suit when Peter and John Fury, and promoter Mick Hennessy, refused to wilt despite being strangers in a foreign land.
As the unfamiliar pressure cranked up, another spanner was thrown in the works when the Furys discovered a soft canvas beneath the ring that hampered movement. Again, the heavies stepped in - such disagreements, it became clear, regularly ended with the Fury family the happier party. The canvas was promptly removed as voices got louder and the air was turned blue.
Finally, when Klitschko wrapped his hands without supervision, Fury's father John threatened to call off the entire bout. Locked in a heated discussion with Boente in the corridor with 50,000 expectant fans looking on, John once again got his way and Klitschko was made to remove his wraps and start again. The first flurry of punches had the champion dazed like never before, and he hadn't yet got in the ring.
It is rare that a 6'9" colossus is able to move with such grace, and while Fury still had moments of awkwardness it was a physical masterpiece that his feet moved with such regularity for 12 rounds. His punch accuracy and power, however, left something to be desired.
The bloody wounds of Klitschko's face do not tell the story. The first, under his left eye, was caused by an accidental head-butt and while the second and third confirmed Fury as the aggressor, they were not the punches of foregone heavyweight legends. This was a victory borne skilfully from Fury's fleet of foot, which in the heavyweight division can be a unique and devastating weapon, but the feeling remains that he might require more fire in his fists.
He seldom threatened to stop Klitschko outright, and it was actually the Ukrainian that landed damaging blows in the penultimate round as he threw with reckless abandon. Fury is a gifted fighter, we knew even before his night of glory, but a KO artist he is not.
His WBC equivalent, Deontay Wilder of America, is a far more frightening proposition from that perspective, which is not to say that Fury couldn't defeat him. But with a spate of heavy-handed prospects switching their attention to the new champion, he will need to cause more destruction in future outings than he managed against Klitschko.
The existence of a rematch clause in the organisation of this fight has become, due to the shock result, irrelevant in whether Klitschko will fight Fury again. The matter will surely fall into the hands of the former champion, and become a question of his stomach to re-enter the ring.
The sound of the first bell indicated that, with a 28th outing, Klitschko broke the record that he previously shared with Joe Louis for the most world heavyweight title fights having already streaked away from the likes of Muhammad Ali. His second reign as champion had nearly reached a decade and only Louis has held the belt for longer.
As his 11-year, 22-fight undefeated run ebbed away, it appeared unclear what a 39-year-old who had sat atop the heavyweight mountain for the majority of the 21st century had left to achieve in the sport. He and his brother Vitali's place in the history books has been assured for years and, with millions in the bank and a Hollywood actress mothering his child, those early morning jogs will seem less appealing when he awakes without the glistening gold reminders of his success.
Klitschko could be forgiven for not wanting to re-enter the ring with a young, hungry buck who has already proved himself once. A second defeat would do nothing for his legacy, not to mention the physical toll it would take on a body. A different type of fight, fought with suits rather than fists, has already caught Klitschko's eye and might well prove more important.
Overnight, Fury has slapped a target on his bare chest that every heavyweight in the world will want to punch. On Saturday afternoon a rowdy pub discussion about the best heavyweight in Britain, never mind the world, would have thrown up several names that might not have been Fury's - but now there can be no doubt. The multitude of gold that hangs from the champion's waist puts his merit beyond question.
The likeliest and safest option for Fury is that he gets some title defences under his belt and establishes himself as the world champion against lesser opposition. But is this a man who does anything conventionally? There are some gigantic occasions awaiting with Fury's name up in lights - where he will believe it always belonged.
David Haye, who twice withdrew from boxing Fury due to injury, is back on the scene. He's 35 and hasn't fought in three years, and Fury has made it clear he isn't interested. But there is a score to be settled and a personal grudge to be quashed, made easier when a world heavyweight title tussle between two Englishman would generate big business and interest.
Wilder, the WBC champion, has already tweeted "I'm coming for you" at the new champion. A unification bout pitting a Brit against an American is one plotline that would be inevitably overawed by the prospect of two crazily colourful personalities duking it out.
Not to mention Anthony Joshua. He has long been billed as Britain's heavyweight hope since winning an Olympic gold and his journey continues against Dillian Whyte, live on Sky Sports Box Office on December 12. The bruising battle between two undefeated punchers has taken on a whole new meaning now the world heavyweight championship belts reside on these shores.
You can book the two-hour repeats of Klitschko vs Fury now, via your Sky remote and online. The repeats start 9.00am, Sunday, with the last showing at 11.00pm.
