I wish my corner had allowed me to fight on, says beaten Wilder

Deontay Wilder insisted he could have fought on against Tyson Fury after it emerged that one of his trainers also disagreed with the decision to throw in the towel.

The dethroned World Boxing Council champion was removed from the fight in the seventh round after taking severe punishment from his British opponent, with co-trainer Mark Breland acting alone in calling a halt to the bout.

Wilder, who had been knocked down twice in the first defeat of his 44-fight career, said: “I had a lot of things going on heading into this fight. It is what it is, but I make no excuses tonight. I just wish my corner would have let me go out on my shield. I’m a warrior.

“He [Fury] had a great performance and we will be back stronger. Even the greatest have lost and come back, that is just part of it.”

Wilder’s head trainer, Jay Deas, revealed that he had stopped Breland from throwing in the towel earlier in the Las Vegas bout and was disappointed when the former welterweight world champion did it anyway.

“I’m the head coach of the team, but we do things a little bit differently. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, the head coach is also the guy who’s lead coach in the corner,” Deas said.

“Ours is a little bit more like an American football team where the head coach doesn’t necessarily call the plays. You have an offensive and defensive co-coordinator.

“Between rounds, Mark something about throwing said the towel in and I told him, ‘Don’t do that.’ I didn’t think he should do that. The fight went on a little longer and I saw the towel go in. We’ll talk about it. Deontay’s the kind of guy who goes out on his shield and he will tell you straight up, ‘Don’t throw the towel in.’ ”

Fury, meanwhile, is “almost sure” Wilder will trigger their rematch clause and fight him a third time, with the heavyweights having drawn their first bout. Wilder’s team have 30 days to ask for the fight, which would split the purse 60-40 in Fury’s favour. The money at the weekend was split equally.

“The spoils of war are fresh,” Fury said. “I need to enjoy this victory and Deontay needs time to recover. But I’m almost sure he’ll take the rematch because he’s a dynamite puncher and can take someone out at any time. If he doesn’t want to, I’m happy with whatever my promoters say.”