Ok, so it appears you have asked the wrong question. You asked if the knockdown should have counted. Many of us have given you solid reasons why it should have counted and you have rejected them all. I've told you it should have counted because he ruled it a legal punch. The question you should be asking is should the ref have ruled it a legal punch, unintentional or otherwise. Maybe he should have and maybe not. The punch actually hit Wilder's arm first and slightly changed the trajectory of the punch. Perhaps that is why Bayless did not rule it illegal.
I'm not picking on anyone in particular, because I see the same phrase being thrown around on Youtube all the time, but people should look up what a rabbit punch is, and why it's called a rabbit punch. It's somehow morphed from a punch to the back of the neck while in a clinch, to any old punch someone doesn't like because it didn't land square on the face.
I think the question I asked was just fine. The answers I received are opinions. The unanimous response is that the knockdown should have counted. I disagree.
Wilder is a serial rabbit and palm puncher Even uses his wrist or forearm sometimes with that metal plate in it
Wilder got hit on the ear, not the back of the head? And it was because Wilder blocked the shot. Fury wasn't aiming for there.
All bs speculation. Wilder got decimated. You can't seriously take a punch to the ear and say "if that punch hadn't have landed I would have won". You've gotta get up and get on with it. No bs excuses. We don't know how Wilder felt. The reality is Fury's style made it difficult for Wilder to do anything, and Wilder failed to really land anything of worth.
Its not speculation, he really was still in the fight until the first knockdown. The fight was over after that knockdown. Fury had a come forward gameplan and executed it like a boss. No excuses, Fury demolished Wilder.
What did Wilder offer before that though? He was still getting pummelled and not really landing anything of substance
He was still finding success with his right, just not quite hitting the button as Fury was using great defense to shake most of the sting off Wilder's shots. Wilder wasn't winning any rounds but was still only one punch away from turning it around. After the knockdown he had no offense.
Wilder was not in that fight lol, he had two right hands that Fury avoided the brunt of in the second round and that's it. They barely touched Fury too as he kept his distance wisely.
It's weird sometimes how you have these rules in your head but don't know where they come from. For as long as I can remember I had always assumed the sop was that if a fighter turns his head and causes a rabbit punch, that's on him, not the puncher. Looked to me like Wilder ducked and caused the punch to land where it did. Now that I think of it, I probably heard it mentioned by commentators during some long forgotten broadcast. Anyways, I agree with the call the ref made.
You were correct the first time. I'm personally just going to go off the rules, unless we have a professional referee on the board who says different: The WBA are kind enough to publish their referee manual online. It says the following about punches to the back of the head: This content is protected WBA Referee Manual – World Boxing Association (wbaboxing.com) If we need a definition of what is the back of the head I think this one taken from the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combat Sports. It seems appropriate as they train and run seminars for the boxing referees. Though these are MMA rules, its likely there are using the same definition across sports they oversee. This content is protected unified-rules-mma-2019-new.pdf (abcboxing.com) Note: this is the same definition ABC has for Pro-kickboxing and MMA. I'm using this as their published rules for boxing seem surprisingly sparse... @DavidC77, hopefully you are happier with this explanation. I understand your point that you have a difference in interpretation of what is "penalizing," but even so by the definition of what is back of the head, the punch thrown by Fury didn't initially connect there.
