WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury expected a much bigger challenge when he faced Deontay Wilder in a rematch this past February.

They fought to a controversial twelve round split draw in December 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Fury went down twice in the contest.

The rematch, which took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, was quite different.

Fury was dominant the second time around, dropping Wilder twice and stopping him in the seventh, when the corner threw in the towel.

There is a trilogy fight on the horizon in 2020, as Wilder exercised an immediate rematch clause.

The third bout was scheduled for July 18, but has now been pushed back to October 18 due to the cornavirus pandemic.

Fury explains that he was expecting a much tougher fight and trained for a grueling contest.

"To be honest I was quite disappointed in the challenge that Wilder brought. Because I did train for 12 rounds at any pace and put myself through hell and back for 10 weeks in the training camp," Fury told Talk Sport. "I prepared for the best fighter on the planet, I prepared for the most vicious puncher on the Earth that there's ever been and I was quite disappointed because it wasn't the challenge that I expected.

"Although it was a fantastic victory for myself and it was a great fight, it just did seem that Wilder maybe wasn't himself. Maybe all the excuses he made, some of them were true. Maybe his legs were sore from the costume, maybe he did have the flu, maybe he did have a broken arm or a bone in his back or whatever. I'm not sure, because that wasn't the Deontay Wilder that I prepared for. That wasn't the animal I put myself through all those hours in training for.

"Like I said, it would be one of my easiest fights, and it was. I believe that was one of my easiest fights apart from the early knockovers that I had and at this level you don't usually get that sort of easy victory, with heavyweight champions of the world.

"The guy's been heavyweight champion of the world and made 10 title defences, knocked out every single person and to go in there with me, who's usually a boxer, counter-puncher, master-skilled boxer, and get absolutely destroyed in a few rounds. I trained for an absolute battle royale and I didn't get that, so hopefully there's a couple of fighters out there that, when I do go into training camp and I do serious training, that they will be worthy of the challenge."