Former world cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew has explained why he does not believe that Deontay Wilder’s claims of Tyson Fury cheating stand up to scrutiny.
Wilder claimed at the weekend that he believed that Fury had tampered with his gloves to insert a hard object in order to do more damage, and suggested that his water was spiked. He also questioned if the drug was put in his drink by his own trainer, Mark Breland.
Speaking to British radio station talkSPORT on Monday morning, Bellew poured scorn on the claims.
“Insane, really insane,” he said.
“Whatever he’s been smoking it needs to stop. It’s absolutely insane.”
The 37-year-old Briton, who fought twice at heavyweight against David Haye, walked through the pre-fight process.
“You have to understand the checks we go through.
“Once we arrive at the arena, from the minute we get there we’re followed by a drug tester.
“This is when you’re at the top of the sport and you’re in world title fights.
“So you get to the arena and you’re followed everywhere by a drug tester.
“The minute you start getting ready for the bout, you’re getting your kit on, your clothes on and your hands wrapped.
“The minute your hands start getting wrapped you’ve got someone from the opposing dressing room in your changing room.
“He watches everything that goes on. You also have an official that’s with you at all times.
“Then the gloves go on. At no point that them gloves are on your hands can they come off, can they be taken off, without an official with you and without someone from the other team.
“It’s impossible what he’s saying.”
Bellew suggested that Wilder’s outbursts have come as a result of surrounding himself with a team that will not counter his opinions.
“What’s happened here is Deontay Wilder’s gone missing for quite a while,” he began.
“And he’s just got a lot of back-slappers and yes-men around him. And in the end he’s listened to these guys for months and he’s come out now and made an absolute fool of himself.
“It’s very, very sad because he’s a really good, strong fighter Deontay Wilder and he doesn’t need to go down this path.
“It’s just absolutely ludicrous. It’s ridiculous and it looks like he’s lost the plot.
“Which is very sad because Deontay Wilder, if he just comes out and says, ‘You know what guys, I lost, it happens, it’s boxing.’
“He goes into the third fight, looks at the mistakes he made, looks to rectify them. He’s always got that puncher’s chance.
“But coming out and saying that? It’s not possible. It’s insane, it’s just madness.”
Fury's American co-promoter, Bob Arum, agreed with Bellew.
“For him to castigate Kenny Bayless, the referee, and Mark Breland, his chief corner man, the way he did is disgraceful," Arum told IFL TV.
"They acted properly and they saved Wilder’s life from taking any further punishment when he was completely out and getting thrashed by Tyson Fury.
“Nobody, nobody can tamper with the gloves. I mean, what he has done is taken something probably from a movie that used to happen maybe in the 30s and 40s, and used that as a conspiracy to explain how he got beaten, and decisively beaten by Tyson Fury.
"It is reprehensible for him to do something like that, and it defies all belief for anybody that knows how these things happen.
“Now the normal fan doesn’t understand — they may think you can bring your gloves to the fight, and you can doctor the gloves, and they inspect or don’t inspect. That can’t happen with gloves, at least in Nevada where the fight took place.
“What Wilder said is a sham.”