Deontay Wilder caused the referee to delay his count when Tyson Fury was knocked down for a second time.
Fury was twice sent to the canvas in the fourth round of his thrilling see-saw battle with Wilder in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
He went on to drop and stop his challenger in the 11th round to retain his heavyweight world title.
But the result might have been different had Wilder not forced the referee to pause his count.
Official Russell Mora had reached the count of five when he noticed Wilder was pacing around the ring - either to be ready to jump on Fury if the fight re-started or to begin his celebration if it didn't.
But the delay gave Fury as many as four extra seconds in order to recover before the referee resumed his count.
And former world champion Andre Ward, who was commentating for American television, noticed the delay saying, "That was an extremely slow count on both of those knockdowns, I don't know what that was about."
Former UFC world champion Daniel Cormier agreed with Ward and criticised the referee, tweeting: "The count was crazy slow. (The referee) isn't supposed to stop counting to tell Deontay to go to his corner."
Fury went on to knock Wilder down in the 10th and 11th rounds with the latter proving conclusive as Mora waved the fight off.
Wilder, who was taken to hospital, later complained about Fury's tactics during the fight.
"I did my best, but it wasn’t good enough tonight. I’m not sure what happened," he said.
"I know that in training he did certain things, and I also knew that he didn’t come in at 277 pounds to be a ballet dancer. He came to lean on me, try to rough me up and he succeeded."
Fury was complimentary of his beaten rival having won two and drawn one of their three epic clashes.
"He’s a tough man. He took some big shots tonight. It was a great fight, as good as any trilogy in history," he said.
