Anthony Joshua thought he would get the "benefit of the doubt" before he suffered his first defeat against Andy Ruiz in the summer.
The undefeated Brit took his talents across the Atlantic for his American debut, but failed to deliver against the Mexican at Madison Square Garden.
Joshua was stopped in the seventh round after being knocked down several times by Ruiz.
But both David Haye and Tony Bellew reckon Joshua thought the referee would keep him in the contest despite the constant onslaught from Ruiz.
"Does he thinks he's getting the benefit of the doubt, because of who he is?," said Bellew on Sky Sports .
"A kid coming from the situation and the place he's come from, they don't quit. I don't care what anybody says, there's no way in a million years. At no point did he say 'I don't want no more.' At no point did he shake his head and say 'no'."
And Haye, who twice lost to Bellew but did win the WBA Heavyweight title in his career, echoed those thoughts.
He said: "That part that I couldn't get my head around is - in the seventh round when he got put down, it wasn't like a big shot. He seemed like he just got cuffed and just wanted a little bit of a break.
"He goes down, gathers himself, gets up at eight and then turns his back and walks away from the referee at eight. That's one thing I don't understand. Maybe he realised that it's the 'AJ Show' and the referee is going to give me the benefit of the doubt?"
While Carl Froch doesn't think Joshua was clever enough in convincing the referee he was fit enough to continue after trying to stem the flow of shots from Ruiz.
He said: "Okay, good move, give yourself a bit of a breather, then when he stood up, he knew he stood up on eight seconds. You have to then look at the referee in the eye and convince the referee 'I want to keep fighting', by the way.
"But he walked back to the corner nonchalantly, put his gloves up. Well, that's ultimately why the referee stopped the fight, because he didn't look like he wanted to carry on, did he?"
