David Haye delivers damning verdict on Usyk-Fury referee Mark Nelson

DAVID HAYE was less than impressed by referee Mark Nelson’s performance following the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.

The former unified cruiserweight champion and WBA heavyweight titlist was part of the 20,000 in attendance to watch the crowning of boxing’s first undisputed champion in 25 years.

With the eyes of the sporting world focused on the Kingdom Arena, everything had to be worthy of such a historic occasion. And in round nine, it looked like Usyk was about to close the show and stop the giant ‘Gypsy King’. With seconds remaining, the WBC champion was still on his feet but all over the place at the same time. Usyk tried to finish the job, but Nelson got in between them, issuing a standing eight count to a beleaguered Fury.

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“It was great, I thought there should be a stoppage,” Haye said of the ninth stanza.

“I thought I’d let him finish punching, but jumping in to stop the action and give him a count and then give him 20 seconds, I thought that was terrible. 

“Some of the worst refereeing in such an important fight. Can you imagine if one of the judges had it the other way and Usyk would have lost after having Tyson Fury fully out on his feet and he didn’t fall over?”

Haye, who was due to fight Fury in 2013 but withdrew due to a cut in sparring, said the “right guy won” in Usyk.

“Great fight. Without that knockdown, I think the judges would have had it a majority for Fury. I wasn’t expecting Usyk to have that sort of punch power and to have him in that sort of trouble. I saw it more of Usyk being the one moving around boxing, but he was the one hunting Fury the whole way.

“Fury was clowning, he was clowning around and the right guy won, it was really nice to see, I was really happy with it.”