Tyson Fury celebrates after knocking down Deontay Wilder in their second fight in Feb. 2020.
Referee Kenny Bayless explains damage and ending to Wilder-Fury 2
Following Tyson Fury’s big win over Deontay Wilder, there has been plenty of conversation about the stoppage from both the referee and Wilder’s corner at the end of the seventh round. At first glance it seemed as if referee Kenny Bayless was the one who called off the fight, but replay showed it was Wilder’s corner, specifically his trainer Mark Breland, who threw in the towel to end the fight.
In a very one-sided showing from Tyson Fury, Wilder was bloodied, battered, and injured before his corner ultimately ended the night, which he was not a fan of, and on Monday, referee Kenny Bayless explained his side of things and why the fight was ended. During an interview with At The Fights with Randy Gordon and Gerry Cooney, Bayless spoke about the cuts and blood on Wilder from the fight, and what he said to the now former champion before the fight was ultimately stopped.
🔊🔊SOUND ON🔊🔊
What was referee Kenny Bayless thinking and seeing during #WilderFury2? He walks @gerrycooney and @CommishRandyG through Wilder's cuts and injuries and the end of the fight.🥊🥊 pic.twitter.com/bcxTcNOCdL
— SiriusXM Boxing (@SiriusXMBoxing) February 25, 2020
“The issue with the blood and at the time I saw the blood, I thought the blood was coming from inside the ear and out. At the end of the round when I went over to check, the doctor was already in the ring while I was picking up the scorecards. So when I got to the doctor, the doctor looked at it and said he [Wilder] was alright. So at that point I left it alone but as the rounds continued, you could continue to see more blood and still, I did not worry about it.”
Bayless offered some clarification about the cut to Wilder’s ear, noting after the fight he was made aware that Wilder wears specific rings inside his earlobes, and it was his lobe that was cut open, not a busted eardrum as many speculated. Wilder expressed clear frustration with his corner following their stoppage of the fight, but Bayless believes it was the right call.
“Yes it was a good stoppage in my opinion because the minute rest before the round before the stoppage, I went over to Deontay, I looked him in the face and I gave him the line that us referees give fighters, ‘Hey, you got to show me something’ and they know that if you go back out there and you don’t show me something, I’m going to have to do my job. Deontay is a warrior, when I saw the towel coming in from the corner of my eye, I stopped it. Deontay’s first response was why did I stop it and I let him know that it was his corner stopping it, but I was very close to stopping it.”
It appears as if both Wilder’s corner and Kenny Bayless were seeing the same thing towards the end of the fight against Tyson Fury, and the fight was seemingly coming to an end one way or another.
