Trainer: Everyone Should Thank Tyson Fury For Not Causing Riot

By Keith Idec

LOS ANGELES – Ben Davison believes everyone inside Staples Center on Saturday night should appreciate how Tyson Fury handled the questionable result of his heavyweight title fight against Deontay Wilder.

The brash British contender feels he did enough to dethrone Wilder in their 12-rounder for Wilder’s WBC championship. He handled the official outcome – a split draw – very professionally, and made sure his family members and friends didn’t cause trouble both in and out of the ring once Showtime’s announcer, Jimmy Lennon Jr., read the scores of their 12-round battle.

Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) was seen defusing the situation in the ring by imploring his family and friends to remain calm. He handled the first blemish on his professional record well during the post-fight press conference at Staples Center as well.

“I think everyone should be thankful to Tyson for being so professional on his conduct, when we all know, sitting in this room, who won that fight,” said Davison, Fury’s head trainer. “He could’ve caused a riot if he kept talking about that scorecard.”

Even though Fury clearly out-boxed Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs), only one judge – Canada’s Robert Tapper – scored their fight for Fury (114-112). Another judge, California’s Alejandro Rochin, scored the bout for Wilder (115-111), who floored Fury once apiece in the ninth and 12th rounds.

British judge Phil Edwards had Wilder-Fury even (113-113) following 12 rounds.

According to Showtime’s unofficial punch statistics, Fury landed 13 more overall punches than Wilder (84-of-327 to 71-of-430). Those stats indicated Fury connected with more power punches (38-of-104 to 31-of-182) and more jabs (46-of-223 to 40-of-248).

Once the scorecards were revealed, Fury’s supporters grew angry and there were several fights within the announced crowd of 17,698. Fury prevented it from getting worse, though, by warning travelers from taking out their frustrations in what would’ve been embarrassing ways.

“You know what it was?,” Fury said. “I was telling me brothers and me family to keep quiet. There was about 8,000 travelers who had come from around the world, 10,000. They probably would’ve smashed this arena up if I would’ve instigated it – I mean to the floor. I just wanted to be an ambassador for me country.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.