By Lucia Binding, news reporter
Tyson Fury overcame a bloody cut above his right eye to defeat Otto Wallin in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
The former heavyweight champion won via a unanimous decision at the T-Mobile Arena but needed to dig deep when he was badly cut and thrown off his stride in the third round.
Remaining unbeaten in a 30th fight has set him up for a lucrative heavyweight rematch with Deontay Wilder.
With blood streaming down his face, Fury, 31, dominated from the middle rounds on in what was supposed to be little more than a tune up fight for his scheduled February rematch with Wilder.
The three ringside judges had Fury winning by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112.
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He was cut over his right eye in the third round, which clearly bothered him as the fight continued. He bled from the right side of his face and stained his trunks, but kept wiping at the cut to try and keep the blood out of his eye.
Referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight briefly in the sixth round for the ringside doctor to look at the eye. Fury then fought at a quicker pace when the fight resumed, seemingly realising he might be running out of time.
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Wallin was still fighting hard in the final round, stunning Fury with a right to the head and chasing him around the ring in attempts of a knockdown that never came.
The fight was the 28-year-old's second in the US, and much of it was fought at close range as the two men brawled on the inside, particularly so in the later rounds as Fury tried to land uppercuts while Wallin kept punching at Fury's bloody right eye.
Fury started landing cleaner punches as the fight went into the later rounds, with Wallin appearing to be tiring in the later rounds as Fury built up a lead on the scorecards.
