I really like Deontay Wilder, he’s an incredibly entertaining boxer and a charming and polite man too. Showing people his highlight reel of KO’s has fast become one of my favourite past times of recent years just to see their reactions, as it’s always fun to see. However, the way that Wilder has responded to his first professional loss against Tyson Fury is really, really disappointing.
I will first address the prediction that I made for the fight. I predicted a Wilder KO in the 10th round, and whilst I said it could absolutely go either way, I simply did not expect Fury to pull off what he did. Fury controlled from start to finish, with just the 2nd round being close enough to potentially score it for Wilder. Wilder looked like a broken man going back to his corner between rounds, and it seemed clear that following the first knockdown of his professional career in the 3rd, he had run out of ideas of how to cope with Fury’s pressure and powerful punches.
In Wilder’s first interview since the loss with Yahoo Sports, Wilder blamed his loss on the costume that he chose to wear to the ring. Apparently it weighed roughly 18KG, and is the reason why his legs were all over the place for the majority of the fight. This is a very disappointing statement to make, mainly considering that he didn’t give any credit to Fury for his absolutely sublime performance. This excuse is also just so insane to me, because it’s like he’s trying to make out that it was absolutely necessary to wear an 18KG costume to the ring, and like we all needed to see that. I’ve also heard that it cost him $50,000 as well which just adds to the ridiculousness of the situation. There must have been some idea in Wilder’s head, or any member of his team’s, that this might not be the best idea. You’re going into the biggest fight of your career, and you decide to wear a costume that looks like Sauron from Lord of the Rings.
Another disappointing element to his interview with Yahoo is that he reveals that he has chosen to stop working with his co-trainer Mark Breland. Breland has been absolutely key towards all of the success that Wilder has achieved in recent years. He threw the towel in in the 7th round, and it was 100% the right decision to make. Wilder seemed to be concussed, he was bleeding from his left ear and there seemed like there was no way that he could possibly win the fight from that point on. It’s disappointing that Wilder doesn’t see that, but he should thank him in many years time when he doesn’t get brain damage sustained from a one-sided beating at the hands of ‘pillow fists’ Tyson Fury.
Anthony Joshua gets a lot of criticism for many different things online, but I think at times like this it’s good to compare Wilder and Joshua. When Joshua suffered the first loss of his career at the hands of Andy Ruiz Jr., Wilder went on a tireless tirade of the former champion, saying that he quit, that he had no heart, and that he wasn’t a true champion. In stark contrast, Joshua’s only public response to the fight so far was him posting a photo of Wilder on his Instagram story with the caption ‘Gladiator’. Joshua deserves a HUGE amount of respect for the way he has handled the whole situation. He could’ve gone in on Wilder but instead chose to take the high road. After losing to Ruiz, Joshua made no excuses and simply said that Ruiz was the better man. When Wilder lost to Fury he blamed it on an overpriced costume and his loyal trainer.
I want to make it clear that I am a fan of Wilder, and I have absolutely no doubt that he’ll bounce back from this defeat, but the way he has conducted himself is incredibly disappointing and frankly disrespectful to Fury. Wilder needs to except that he was simply outclassed and there are flaws in his game. There’s no shame in admitting you have flaws, and I have more respect for fighters who are willing to admit that after losses, but I’m simply not a fan of responding to losses like this, and it’s made me lose a huge amount of respect for Deontay Wilder.
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