It turns out it wasn’t head coach Jay Deas who threw in the towel during Deontay Wilder’s fight with Tyson Fury.
Wilder suffered a seventh-round TKO defeat to Fury in their WBC heavyweight championship fight last night in Las Vegas after his corner threw in the towel. That decision was made after the American was dropped twice by Fury and was taking plenty of punishment during the seven rounds of action.
“The Bronze Bomber” made no excuses after the fight even though he would have preferred to have gone out on his shield. Surprisingly, Deas felt the same way as he revealed it wasn’t him who made the call, but rather, fellow coach Mark Breland who overruled him:
“Mark Breland threw in the towel, I didn’t think he should have,” Deas said (via The Mirror). “Deontay is a go out on his shield kind of guy. He did not want that, Deontay is a fearsome puncher and he does always have that shot to land a big shot and turn things around.”
“… The head coach doesn’t always call the play. Mark said something about throwing the towel in and I said don’t do that. The fight went a little longer and I saw the towel go in. I haven’t seen Mark to talk about it but we will talk about it.”
Although it may not have been what Wilder or Deas wanted, it looks like Breland made the right call given how the fight was going. Deas also mentioned how a cut in Wilder’s ear may have affected his equilibrium.
“Deontay is doing well and he’ll be back and all the better for it. But congratulations to Tyson and his team.”
Was it the right call for Wilder’s coach to throw in the towel?