Tony Bellew says Ben Davison is wrong to throw in the towel after Leigh Wood was dropped by Mauricio Lara with a brutal left hook but the former champion backs the coach

Tony Bellew thinks Ben Davison was wrong to remove Leigh Wood from his fight with Mauricio Lara.

Wood was knocked down by a brutal left hook from Lara in the seventh round, which led to his coach throwing in the towel and ending things.

The loss to Lara was only the third of Wood’s career

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It had been a thrilling contest with the Briton on all three scorecards at that point the fight was called off.

Former world heavyweight champion Bellew believes Wood should have been given more opportunities to defend his WBA featherweight title by trainer Davison, who was working with Tyson Fury.

Bellew said DAZN“I’m usually very gratifying to coaches for stopping fights like this. Look, Ben Davison knew what he was getting into tonight.

“You have to let it continue, in my opinion. You know you’re going to hurt yourself in a fight. He’s not completely gone because watch his reaction when he sees that towel.

“He says ‘no, no, no, no, no’. I know what people are going to say Ben Davison knows him better than anyone. I understand.

“You know he was going to get hurt at some point tonight. You gotta let him get away with it. He got hurt more against Michael Conlan.

Tony Bellew says Ben Davison is wrong to throw in the towel after Leigh Wood was dropped by Mauricio Lara with a brutal left hook but the former champion backs the coach — Davison (left) has been criticized for calling the fight off too soon

“josh [Warrington] he said [Lara] is a different puncher than Conlan, but his head was tossed from side to side by Michael Conlan and Ben was happy to let it roll.

“Three, four, five and six combination punches that Conlan would sometimes throw and Leigh Wood would take them and Ben wouldn’t throw them.

“You have to let it see.”

When asked after the fight if he wanted to continue, Wood said, “I’m a fighter, I want to go until I can’t see anything. Congratulations to Mauricio Lara, great fighter. I made a mistake and I paid for it.