Matt Macklin supports the referee’s controversial call during Usyk-Fury

SKY SPORTS BOXING ANALYST Matthew Macklin agrees Tyson Fury should have been allowed to continue after Saturday night’s ninth round fight.

The biggest heavyweight clash of all the marbles in Riyadh between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk featured shifts between the two but the key moment occurred in the ninth frame.

Usyk’s left hand – as we all were – connected and we had Fury in a world of trouble. When he shot the giant, Brit looked like he was going down but was saved by the ropes and posts in Usyk’s corner. At that point, referee Mark Nelson intervened and called off the count.

Macklin, a former middleweight world title challenger, agreed with Nelson’s decision to give Fury the opportunity to continue in the quarter-century’s biggest heavyweight fight. After that Debate News Macklin asked if referee Nelson should have stopped the fight midway through the ninth.

“No, it’s not,” he replied.

“This is the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world, you have to earn it. Yes, he was out on foot, but he was fine. He was moving to avoid the gun.

“It might be better for him to come down. If he had gone down earlier and counted, he might not have been hit with such big shots, but because he was trying to get out of the way of the punches. His legs were missing, he was caught by many gunshots.

“The ref was right to give it 10-8 because the ropes kept him. You did the right thing. Then in the next round he just moved, went through the round and put his feet back under him.”

Meanwhile, former two-weight world champion David Haye disagreed with the referee’s request. Read what ‘The Hayemaker’ has to say here.