Wilder Insists Fury Fight Should Not Have Been stopped
Although Mark Breland did the right thing, the compassionate thing, the potentially live-saving thing in throwing in the towel when he did in the seventh round of the grossly one-sided Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder rematch – this in the opinion of many fans, experts and pundits – it’s likely Breland is to be fired by the former WBC heavyweight champ.
Wilder, who might very well have lost the plot – blaming, as he has, the heavy weight of his ring walk costume for his defeat to Fury, that and Fury’s rabbit punches – is adamant that he was “still in the fight,” that he “still had five rounds left.” To almost every single observer, Wilder was a badly beaten man, a man who, despite having withering punching power, was all over the place, weakened and with no hope of being able to throw a solid punch. Wilder would very likely have been even more seriously beaten up had Breland not thrown in the towel.
But Wilder is having none of it, insisting how he will make “major changes” to his team. This almost certainly means Breland will be fired.
Speaking with Yahoo Sports, Wilder said how, over the years, he often spoke with Breland, and other members of his team, telling him to never stop one of his fight no matter how hurt he appears to be.
“I am upset with Mark for the simple fact that we’ve talked about this many times and it’s not emotional,” Wilder said. “It is not an emotional thing, it’s a principle thing. We’ve talked about this situation many, many times before this even happened. I said as a warrior, as a champion, as a leader, as a ruler, I want to go out on my shield. If I’m talking about going in and killing a man, I respect the same way. I abide by the same principle of receiving. So I told my team to never, ever, no matter what it may look like to never throw the towel in with me because I’m a special kind. I still had five rounds left. No matter what it looked like, I was still in the fight.”
Jay Deas is also angered by Breland’s decision to throw in the towel, apparently telling Breland not to do so during that seventh round. But it seems clear to all, Breland is being made out to be the scapegoat here. We can forget the wild conspiracy theories Wilder is listening to – that Breland was “influenced by another fighter,” this being Anthony Dirrell, who Wilder says works with Sugar Hill Steward, Fury’s trainer – what we need to ask is, how badly hurt was Wilder in the fight? It seems he is unable to think clearly here, three days after the fight.
No way should Breland be treated this way. He was simply doing what all boxing corner-men should do: care about their fighter.
