Deontay Wilder insists that the referee allowed Tyson Fury to escape a knockout defeat in their fight last year.
The WBC heavyweight championship contest was a draw leaving both men frustrated, after Fury miraculously recovered from a 12th-round knockdown.
Wilder, during the press conference to confirm his next fight against Luis Ortiz on November 23, suggested that the referee’s count was not fast enough when he decided to let Fury continue.
“I knocked that fool out. He got blessed by the referee. He had favouritism,” Wilder said.
The unbeaten heavyweights are planning a rematch next year, and after Fury survived a serious cut to outpoint Otto Wallin, Wilder will face Ortiz for the second time.
Wilder came through major adversity last year to eventually knock out the previously-unbeaten Ortiz, but will give him another chance at the WBC belt.
“He was the boogey-man for a reason,” Wilder said about Ortiz, 40. “To this day, they don’t fight him for a reason.
“They say he’s old, but they won’t fight this old man. Plenty of people have had the opportunity to become my mandatory, and all they’ve had to do is fight Luis Ortiz.
“They never gave him the opportunity.
“I’m the best in the world and I believe in that.
“No-one wants to face him but I feel it’s my duty as champion.”
Asked about the difficult moments he persevered through in the first fight against Ortiz, Wilder said: “It wasn’t anything that I learned. I had confirmation. You know what you can do. I feel it inside of my heart.
“This fight is to prove everyone else who I am. I know who I am.
“I wasn’t proving it to myself. I just needed that moment to prove to others.”
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