Wladimir Klitschko’s former trainer Johnathon Banks has refuted claims from Dillian Whyte that Deontay Wilder was “knocked out cold” by the former heavyweight champion.
Whyte was drafted into a Klitschko training camp alongside current Wilder early in their careers and says he saw the current WBC heavyweight champion get rendered unconscious during sparring.
“I’ve seen [Wilder] getting knocked out. Wladimir knocked him out,” Whyte told Sky Sports .
“It wasn’t no knockdown, he was knocked cold. Properly twitching as well. That’s why they probably didn’t want him to fight Wlad, because Wlad was going to fight him as a pro and Wilder never fancied it the whole time.”
Banks has different memories of the sparring session.
“I’m the one who picked Wilder and all the other sparring partners to come,” Banks said to ThaBoxingVoice.
“Did Wilder get knocked out cold in sparring by Wladimir? No, that’s the truth it didn’t happen.
“Did he get dropped? Yes, he did.”
Wilder also played down Whyte’s version of events.
“I was only in the Klitschko camp one time and I held my own very well with everybody,” he said. “All of a sudden this mysterious untold story of me and Klitschko and he knocked me out.”
Wilder is currently preparing for his rematch with Tyson Fury at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 22.
The big-hitting American, who has 41 knockouts in his 43 professional contests, managed a draw against Fury a little over a year ago in Los Angeles after dropping him twice late in the fight.
Many fans and pundits believed Fury deserved the victory in their first fight.
“When you have power, there’s no way around it. You can’t prepare for it. I gave this man a concussion the first time, he doesn’t know how he went down or how he got up,” he said.
“This is unfinished business that I will finish. I will knock him out. I’m the king of the jungle. I’ll rip his head off. I’ll knock him through the ropes.”