Dillian Whyte was given three rounds across the judges' scorecards as Tyson Fury's dominance was well reflected before the stoppage.
Fury and Whyte came head-to-head at Wembley Stadium in front of a raucous crowd of 94,000 for the WBC heavyweight title. Whyte struggled to close the distance between the pair throughout the exchanges with Fury dominating before finding a big uppercut to close the show in the sixth stanza.
However, Whyte was surprisingly well rewarded on one card with judge Juan Carlos Pelayo handing Whyte rounds two and three. Guido Cavalleri also handed Whyte the opener despite then scoring him behind in every period afterwards. Third judge Robert Tapper handed Fury every round on the scorecards as many experts had also indicated due to Fury's dominance from range.
Whyte was well behind on the scorecards before the stoppage just shy of the midway point with the judges scoring the contest 49-46, 48-47 and 50-45 in the champion's favour. Fury established his slick boxing technique early on keeping the fight at range and landing his jab at will against Whyte who tried desperately to bring the 'Gypsy King' closer to home.
However the champion began to make more significant breakthroughs as the fight went on and began to hurt his opponent on multiple occasions with whipping body work and stiff jabs. Fury made the telling opening count in the sixth stanza when he landed a swift uppercut which sent his rival sprawling to the canvas.
Whyte rose to his feet but was unable to keep balance as he desperately stumbled to the referee in a bid to keep the fight active. However official Mark Lyson was handed no option but to stop the fight with the champion's desperate pleas clear to prevent his opponent from taking further damage.
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After retaining his title, Fury admitted he was happy with the stoppage after growing fearful of making a more permanent dent on Whyte's heavyweight career. "It was definitely a great shot," Fury said after the fight.
"I was very happy with the referee Mark Lyson because if he would have allowed it to continue and me to storm in and hit him with two or three more, then he could have been in big trouble.
"He made a fantastic call because he was all over the place. I was actually concerned even though I just had chinned him. I was actually concerned it would be allowed to continue and I was like 'no ref don't let it go on' because I would have had to take him out and I didn't really want to do that. But the referee made the right decision and that was it."
