DEONTAY WILDER’S head coach has admitted that his assistant trainer made the decision to throw in the towel against Tyson Fury against his will.
The Bronze Bomber was floored twice by the Gypsy King during a stunning surrender of his WBC title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas before the American’s corner waved the white flag.
Despite the fact that Fury was winning EVERY ROUND on two of the judges’ scorecards when the fight was stopped, Wilder screamed at his team “why’d you do that?” after they threw in the towel.
The 34-year-old’s head trainer Jay Deas has revealed that co-trainer Mark Breland went against Wilder’s wishes to make the call to end it.
He said: “Mark threw the towel.
“I didn’t think he should have. Deontay’s the kind of guy that’s a ‘go out on his shield’ kind of guy.
“You’ve always got to consider, also, that Deontay is a fearsome puncher, so that’s always a difficult thing, because he does always have that shot to land a big shot and turn things around.
“I’m the head coach of the team, but we do things a little bit differently. Ninety nine percent of the time, the head coach of the team is also the guy that’s the lead in the corner.
“Ours is a little bit more like a football team, where the head coach doesn’t necessarily call the plays; you have an offensive and defensive co-ordinator.
“So, ours is a little bit like that. So, what happened between during the round, Mark said something about throwing the towel in, and I told him, ‘don’t do that’. I didn’t think he should do that.
“Then the fight went a little bit longer and then I saw the towel go in. So I haven’t talked to Mark about it, but we’ll talk about it and figure out what exactly happened there.”
Wilder, who lost the WBC title in his first-ever defeat in 44 fights, had claimed immediately after the stoppage that he wanted to carry on.
He said: “My side threw in the towel. I was ready to go out on my shield.
“I had a lot of things going into this fight. The better man won tonight.
“I just wish my corner would have let me go out on my shield. I’m a warrior. He had a great performance and we will be back stronger.”
