Jay Deas, the trainer and co-manager of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs), rejects the claims from critics who believe his boxer received additional time to recover from a harsh assault at the hands of Luis Ortiz in the seventh round.
During the seventh round, Wilder was badly hurt and nearly stopped in the closing moments.
At the start of the eight, there was a break in the action where the local commission in New York City wanted to check on Wilder for a moment to see if he was phyiscally capable of moving forward with the fight.
Ortiz was never able to fully capitalize on the damage he did in the seventh.
Wilder was able to eventually bounce back by the ninth, and then in the tenth round he dropped Ortiz two times before the contest was waved off.
Deas believes Ortiz was also given extra time when he was decked during the first round. He says their team had no control of the local commission calling a break before the start of the eight.
"The New York rules say the fighter's safety is paramount," Deas said to Sky Sports. "I also know that, after Ortiz's first knockdown, he was given extra time. It wasn't just an eight-count. There were additional seconds.
"I asked Deontay if he was okay [after the seventh round]. He said he was. I said: 'Ortiz has wasted a lot of energy. With the minute's rest he's probably got another 30 seconds of real, serious output in him'.
"We had to be careful but I said: 'Ortiz is almost done, he's wasted almost his entire arsenal and doesn't have much left'. We just had to get through the next round - stay off the ropes, big pivots, move our feet. We decided not to play their game. We decided only to use the right hand when we could land without repercussions. Even if the rounds went by, even if we lost rounds, we didn't want to push the issue until we could burn some steam from Ortiz because we knew Deontay has better stamina than anybody."
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