Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder: Freddie Roach claims Fury could have won by knockout if he was in charge

Roach was brought into the corner as cut-man, but only Fury's head trainer, Ben Davison, gave direct instructions

Freddie Roach has criticised Tyson Fury’s trainer Ben Davison, and claimed that had he been giving the instructions in the corner, the ‘Gypsy King’ may have not only won, but knocked out Deontay Wilder.

Roach was brought into Fury’s camp late on, having been training at the hall-of-fame Wildcard Boxing Gym, but assured that Davison, 32 years his junior, would be in charge and the only person giving direct instructions in the corner.

Speaking on Fair Game in the US, Roach said that he would have adjusted Fury’s game plan during the fight, having seen the Brit hurt Wilder on a number of occasions.

“Yes, I do,” Roach said when asked he thinks Fury could have won the fight conclusively. “[If he had been] more offensive. The thing is, he did hurt him a couple of times. I was disappointed he didn’t get a chance to finish him.

“It was funny, we had one fighter earlier in the night, Ben [Davison] gave the exact same instructions to the 126lbs fighter as he did the heavyweight fighter.

“I said ‘Why are you saying the same... why are you treating these people the same?’ These fighters know each other but they’re not the same. His instructions were the same, and choreographed for both guys. I was a little disappointed.

It was believed Roach may continue to work with Fury ahead of a potential rematch, however, that prospect has now been thrown into jeopardy by his latest comments.

“Possibly,” Roach continued. ‘The thing is, me and Tyson and his brothers spoke about it, we said let’s all go home and enjoy Christmas, and we’ll have a meeting in the UK or here in America with each other... and we left it at that.

“I told Tyson [initially], I said maybe I can help him along the way. He did a great job with the conditioning, the weight loss. He’s only a 26-year-old kid.

“If Tyson had won, I think I wouldn’t be the youngest trainer to have a world champion anymore because he’s a year younger than me. When I won my first tile, I was 27.”