Fury retains heavyweight belt in final fight

LONDON (AP) — What might be the final punch of Tyson Fury’s controversial boxing career smashed into the chin of Dillian Whyte, sending him to the canvas and one of his teeth flying through the air.

Fury raised his right hand in celebration, knowing there would be no coming back from an uppercut seemingly felt all around Wembley Stadium.

And sure enough, there wasn’t.

With a brutal finish in the last seconds of the sixth round, Fury defeated Whyte — his fellow Briton and former sparring partner — in front of more than 94,000 fans inside England’s national soccer stadium to stay unbeaten with the 32nd win in his 33-fight professional career.

And that, the 33-year-old Fury said, could be it.

“This might be the final curtain for the Gypsy King,” Fury said in the ring, with his WBC and Ring Magazine belts around his shoulders. “What a way to go out.”

He wasn’t quite finished there. A born entertainer, Fury gave the biggest ever capacity for a boxing bout in Britain a now-familiar post-fight rendition of Don McLean’s “American Pie.”

He celebrated with his team and posed for pictures with kids, wearing the red-and-white colors of the flag of England on St. George’s Day.

Fury was soaking in perhaps his last moments in a ring after 14 years as a professional. For his last fight — or so he says — he gave a clinic.

After a gripping trilogy with Deontay Wilder in the United States, Whyte was a big step-down for Fury, who mostly toyed with his compatriot after sizing him up in a cagey opening couple of rounds.

Fury was in control of the fight without truly exerting himself until the fifth round, which he dominated. A body shot and then a straight right rocked Whyte back, getting the crowd going.

By what proved to be the final round,