Cormier believes Fury benefited from ‘crazy slow’ count after being knocked down by Wilder

Tyson Fury has received universal praise for his sensational knockout victory over Deontay Wilder in their heavyweight trilogy bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, but Daniel Cormier believes ‘The Gypsy King’ got off lightly in the fourth round.

Fury was knocked down twice in the fourth round and, during the second knockdown, referee Russell Mora appeared to pause his count to instruct Wilder back to his corner.

Cormier, a former UFC two-division champion, believes Wilder could have walked away with the victory had the referee not given Fury an extra two seconds to recover.

“I agree with @andreward the count was crazy slow! He isn’t supposed to stop counting to tell deontay to go to his corner. #FuryvsWilderIII,” Cormier posted on Twitter following the fight.

Boxing referees delaying and pausing their ten counts to ensure a fighter is in a neutral corner is commonplace. The official rules of boxing do state that a ten-second count is to be used to rule if a fighter can continue. However, it is understood that this rule is not intended to ensure there is an exact time limit for a downed fighter before he is counted out. It is widely understood and accepted that a ten count represents the approximate amount of time it takes someone to count to ten. The official rules also state that a referee’s count is final.

The perceived slow count may prove to be a controversial topic, but it doesn’t deter from the fact that Fury was — in the eyes of most boxing fans — the superior boxer on fight night. The heavyweight fan favorite defeated Wilder to retain his WBC title and close out their trilogy 2-0 (1 draw).