Tyson Fury’s team respond to allegations that ‘Gypsy King’ cheated during Deontay Wilder victory

Tyson Fury has been defended by legendary cut-man Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran against accusations of tampering with his gloves in the victory over Deontay Wilder.

Footage of Fury throwing open-palmed hooks at Wilder have been picked up by the American’s fans, who believe that the Briton’s fists were not fully fixed into his gloves and enabled contact with his opponent without the padded protection.

Fury inflicted a devastating defeat on Wilder in what proved the first defeat of his career, with a seventh-round stoppage coming off the back of two earlier knockdowns as his corner threw in the towel.

The performance has been hailed as one of the great displays in heavyweight boxing history and rivals the very best British victories overseas, with Fury regaining his world championship status with the WBC title and maintaining his unbeaten record in the process.

The fallout from the bout has seen plenty of scrutiny cast on Wilder’s excuses, with the 34-year-old claiming he was drained by the 40-pound costume he wore to the ring in recognition of Black History Month, while he also hit out at his co-trainer Mark Breland for throwing in the towel without agreement from the rest of the corner.

The loss has left Wilder’s fans looking for answers, leading to many questioning the legality of Fury’s gloves in what appears to be one of few conspiracy theories.

But with Wilder fans pointing out that video footage of the fight appears to show Fury with floppy gloves on more than one occasion, his team have moved to reject any claims of wrongdoing as Duran – who was in Fury’s corner during the historic performance in Las Vegas a week ago – stressed that the Nevada State Athletic Commission oversaw all aspects of his gloves being put on.

“I’ll give you the facts, it wouldn’t be no thoughts,” cut-man Duran told Boxing Social. “The Nevada State Athletic Commission is one of the best commissions in the world and they handle the gloves until it’s time for them to put them on, so there was no tampering whatsoever.

“I was there and that was all just a big myth, dispel those myths, those rumours, it didn’t happen. That’s why you have your inspectors there to make sure that everything is followed within the guidelines and none of that happened. But it’s good for discussion.”

Asked whether talk of alleged cheating was a concern, Duran answered: “Nah it’s going to fade away. It’s not even true, not even close to being true. Maybe it’s the tough shots that he hit him with that loosened up the glove – and I’m just saying that in kidding – but none of that ever happened.

“He’s not that type of guy, and I worked with Emanuel Steward for eight years with Wladimir Klitschko. SugarHill follows the same format, Andy Lee follows the same format as I’ve worked with both of them and they don’t do that. They’re good characters, they’re good professional people and they just don’t do that – they don’t need to.”

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