By Ryan Burton

Recently a story ran on krikya360.com in which Luis Ortiz and his manager Jay Jimenez expressed their frustrations with the actions taken after Ortiz badly hurt Deontay Wilder in the 7th round. When the bell sounded to start the 8th round the referee sent Wilder back to his corner to see the doctor which gave the WBC heavyweight champion extra time to clear his head.

"Look how the referee didn't even have to look at Wilder.. he knew what he had to do. Wilder was completely stunned. We are not taking credit away from Wilder. He did what he had to do and ended the fight like a champion. But his promoters or someone with deep pockets made a sign to the referee.. it wasn't Wilder but someone with interest in his victory," Ortiz stated in the article.

Wilder would recover in the eighth and ninth rounds and badly hurt Ortiz at the end of the ninth and drop him twice in the 10th to cap off his knockout victory.

While some have said that the doctor checking Wilder was within the New York State Athletic Commission’s safety guidelines in light of new regulations following Magomed Abdusalamov’s brain damaging injuries suffered in 2013, Jimenez isn’t buying it.

His fighter wasn’t checked at the beginning of the 10th round after being visibly hurt in 9th and feels that the doctor could have checked Wilder before he walked to the center of the ring which bought him additional time to recover.

“At first I was buying the story of safety but the doctor was already in Wilder’s corner the whole time and let him walk all the way out to the center of the ring and then called him back. It makes you think,” Jimenez told krikya360.com.

Regardless of the actions between the 8th and start of the 9th round, Jimenez feels that Wilder should be praised for coming back to win the fight.

The entertaining battle scored the highest ratings on Showtime since Wilder defeated Bermane Stiverne in their first encounter and had heavy competition from a boxing card on HBO and a pay-per-view UFC event.

Given the commercial success and somewhat controversial outcome, Jimenez feels there  should be an immediate rematch if Wilder isn’t able to secure the winner of the Anthony Joshua-Joseph Parker fight that takes place on March 31st. 

“After seeing the fight at home and then listening to all the fans and commentators who tuned in to watch the epic brawl of two of the baddest heavyweights - we truly feel that the fight could have gone in another direction after the 8th round,” said Jimenez.

“They wanted to check him out and he got his legs back under him. We know neither Wilder or his team had nothing to do with this and we never once cried foul or disagreed with Wilder or his team. They won and he proved himself.

“Wilder came out of the 8th to go toe to toe again just like Luis did after getting dropped. Those two guys backed up everything they said. Luis showed he wasn’t slow or old and Wilder showed what he said about his heart and his punch.

“Our hats go off to Wilder and his team and leave no doubt - we believe it was close to going ether way that night. It was a fight for the ages so we do believe after seeing those Showtime numbers while HBO and MMA and the NBA were going on at same time it was an absolute victory for all. It is worthy of a Wilder-Ortiz 2 if Joshua-Wlider doesn’t happen. By the way we also would love to see that fight and we would be in attendance at that mega brawl.”

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