Fury digs deep to wrest away Chisora’s British and Commonwealth Heavyweight belts

The 23-year-old – who had been training for the fight at Luton’s Shamrock Gym for over two months and held a public workout in The Mall – put in a gutsy and determined performance to wrest the belts away from champion.

Both had boasted identical 14-0 records coming into the fight, although Fury, who weighed in slightly lighter at 18st 3lb 8oz, had one more knockout to his name with 10.

Chisora on the other hand looked more cumbersome at 18st 5lb and, despite threatening to knock the Mancunian out early on, tired after the first few rounds and allowed Fury to dominate much of the fight that was potentially an eliminator to face Wladimir Klitschko for his IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO titles.

And Fury richly deserved his victory with one judge scoring the fight 118-111 in his favour and the other two making it 117-112.

The ill feeling between the two was clear even before the first bell sounded. Mocking Chisora walked in to an Irish ditty, clearly trying to rile the challenger, and it did just that as the two exchanged words in the centre of the ring before the first round.

Fury, sporting white trunks with black trim, had the better of the first round, catching the champion with a good right.

He started the second in much the same way with his right showing promise but Chisora suddenly exploded with a flurry of great punches to put Fury in trouble.

A great left, followed by a fine combination, seemed to leave their mark under Fury’s left eye and, although he responded with a couple of good body shots, it was the Londoner who was on top.

Despite his massive reach disadvantage Chisora was constantly finding a way through Fury’s guard and taking every opportunity to pick off head shots at his towering opponent who was failing to use his jab as well as he should have done.

Some thunderous lefts from Chisora christened the third as he looked jumped all over his opponent, but Fury again responded with some good uppercuts and combos.

Both fighters landed with Chisora producing a great overhand right and Fury a sharp shot of his own.

A stinging overhand right in the fourth from Chisora caused Fury more problems, but from there the Londoner seemed to tire and, despite throwing plenty of shots, he was failing to land the leather.

The fifth round saw Fury begin to find his range and his accuracy seemed to cause the burly Chisora plenty of problems. The Mancunian was growing in stature as Chisora seemed largely spent.

Sniffing blood Fury looked to ram home his advantage in the sixth as another good right found it’s way through Chisora’s knitted gloves.

A wild shot from Chisora failed to land and the Luton-trained fighter was in the ascendancy.

The seventh firmly belonged to Fury as he landed series of great shots and seemed to open up a small cut under Chisora’s left eye.

Fury in the midst of it began to play up to the crowd and was spurred on by their shouts as the champion could only respond with some wild windmilling.

Chisora seemed to find a second wind in the eighth as both fighters proceeded to land punches and a cocky Chisora goaded Fury from the corner as the fight grew scrappier.

The pair evidently began to tire in the ninth as the action slowed up, but Fury enjoyed the better of the inside work.

More of the same followed in the 10th with Fury having the better in the close, but Chisora rebounded off the ropes to let rip with a series of shuddering hits that had Fury wobbling, but the challenger survived.

Despite being well down on points there was more goading from Chisora in the penultimate round, even though Fury seemed to hit home with some jagged uppercuts.

Going into the 12th it was clear Chisora would need a knockout to win, although there was a nice touch of gloves between the two that showed their growing mutual respect.

It proved to be a messy round with the pair continually tying each other up as they leaned and wrestled across the ring.

Fury finished the round better though and celebrated at the bell, confident her had secured victory, which was soon confirmed by the judges’ scorecards.