If not for some cooler heads in Tyson Fury’s corner, Ben Davison might have caused a disqualification in the very last round of the WBC heavyweight title fight earlier this month.
The monster meeting of undefeated heavyweights, Fury and Deontay Wilder, was ultimately ruled a split draw despite many fans’ opinion that ‘The Gypsy King’ did more than enough to earn a win.
Wilder’s second knockdown of the contest, in the 12th round, proved crucial and before Fury defied expectations by climbing off the canvas despite appearing unconscious from a vicious combination, the bout came close to being decided by a DQ.
Legendary coach Freddie Roach was Fury’s cutman for the fight and he has revealed how lead corner, Ben Davison, was brought to tears following the knockdown and had to be restrained so that the fight could finish.
“Ben thought for sure he wasn’t going to get up and he was really worried,” Roach told Fair Game.
“The inspectors and the cornermen really had to hold him down and settle him down because he wanted to go into the ring to take care of his fighter.
“I told him that if he went into the ring, it would have been an automatic disqualification so we had to hold him down and just let it play out.
“One thing about Tyson is that when he did go down, his eyes were open the whole time and that’s what made the referee not just wave it off because usually, most referees will just wave it off when a guy goes down like that but we had a very experienced and very good referee.”
Davison, who is just 26 years old, has been lauded for his work with Fury throughout his remarkable comeback but the young trainer has come in for criticism from the vastly more experienced Roach for his cautious approach to the fight game.
“I’m more of an offensive coach,” Roach explained. “I’m very aggressive and I was a little bit disappointed in the corner work because Ben was telling him to feint, feint and step back.
“Why are you telling him to step back? Let this guy fight. He can get rid of this guy. He had him hurt more than once in the fight.
“We haven’t spoken about it yet but we are going to have a meeting and speak with Ben and so forth because I think he was just very safe, not taking chances.
“Wait a minute, don’t take chances? You’re in the boxing ring.”
