McDermott 1 because he lost the fight and everyone knew it. He came in unprepared, was outboxed for the majority of the rounds and got a gift decision.
It's actually ridiculous seeing people bring up McDerm all the time as though Fury was exposed, without mentioning Fury's age. You have Olympians in their late 20s or 30s who are still being 'brought along'. None of Fury's peers would have fought a McDerm at Fury's age. Just like none would go fight bronze medal Price in an amateur fight as a teenager.
Cool story and all, but he still lost and got a gift. He could have been 50, his age doesn’t mean a thing.
Does that in any way matter? Joe Louis' toughest fight before his comeback was obviously Schmeling. Does it matter he KO'd him in 1 in the rematch? Even if he had beaten him 10 times by KO after, the first would still have been his toughest fight.
Fury tells a lot of fibs, he was dancing in between rounds in the Cunningham fight after being knocked down. It might be Fury's 5th toughest, though McDermott 2 is an underrated war. It's hard to judge because Fury could have lost in distinctly different ways: He could have possibly lost a decision in McDermott 1, that was his closest fight in terms of punch count but he wasn't close to being stopped He could have been immediately stopped after the massive 12th round KD in Wilder 1 but most had Fury winning 9 rounds He could have been stopped on cuts against Wallin but most had Fury winning 9 or so rounds He had to dig very deep in Wilder 3 after the massive KD in the 4th, it joins the three just above in the top 4 for me. Wlad was a difficult fight from a technical perspective but Fury was physically and mentally up for it, unlike the others. Hard to rank.
If you mute the biased Scottish commentary it becomes a very different fight and more scorecards on eyeonthering have Fury winning than losing. The first three and the last two were clear Fury rounds and McDermott could have easily lost points for turning his back twice in the 10th.
Probably the most recent Wilder fight, the shot Wilder landed would have finished most of the division. Difficult to compare as Fury was a young boy in some of his previous fights. Cunningham was an awkward opponent.
And I don't completely deny what you say, but fighters perceive things in different ways having been there. For Cunnignham he was young, behind on the cards, and got knocked down, and there may very well have been a sense of panic...of everything slipping away...they he never felt before or since.
If you can't produce at least a scorecard (and preferably some kind of accompanying breakdown) to support this categorical but questionable statement, you're just woofing. Mine's here if required, because I don't ask for anything I'm not prepared to provide myself; The average scorecard had Fury two points down after six, due to the careless show of bravado in the 2nd round. He was clearly in the ascendancy going into the 7th; if he hadn't nailed Cunningham to the canvas in that round, it's probable he would have been leading by the time the bell rang for the 10th. It wasn't as if he pulled the KO out of nowhere, there were obvious signs that he was taking over the fight leading up to it. You're mistaking the US for the UK. American officials and ringside physicians have, time and again, showed a greater tolerance for allowing fighters to continue through (even multiple) gruesome cuts. Fight should not have been stopped. If Wallin had sustained the same cut and been pulled by the physician/referee, it would've been every bit as soft a stoppage as it would've been if Fury were pulled. Wallin wasn't cut, so the scenario is a non-factor; Fury was cut and was allowed to continue, as he should have been. It always strikes me as especially odd when fans of boxing advocate for the dilution of the sport just to provide fodder for their enmity toward some fighter or other. You're not low, man, I see what you're doing. But, if pointedly describing Pajkić and Cunningham as featherfisted helps you cope with the fact that Tyson Fury rose to become the #1 heavyweight on the planet against all your expectations of him (withstanding shots from two of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history along the way), have at it. Though I don't think there's a ton of sense in the OP's invitation to compare, say, a gut check in a prospect's eighth fight with the peril a seasoned heavyweight encounters in a championship bout with a huge puncher (as if there's real equivalence there), I don't really have an issue with your list. I'm just adding some balance to the very biased commentary therein.
His fight against The Royal Pie Factory. It was a tough one but by gum, through grit and determination, he emptied their inventory.