Deontay Wilder will exercise his immediate rematch clause!
Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41KOs) has finally broken his silence after being dethroned as champion by Tyson Fury (30-0, 21KOs) in their February 22 rematch.
It was a stunning one-sided thumping of the fighter from Alabama at the hands of the “Gypsy King”. Being dropped twice en route to a seventh TKO left people wondering “what went wrong?”
A FORTY POUND COSTUME IS THE CULPRIT
You read that right! Wilder told Yahoo’s Kevin Iole that his gigantic costume left his legs dead! The former WBC champion, who was doing a tribute for black history month, came out in a jazzed-up transformers meets black panther Halloween-style costume.
“He didn’t hurt me at all! The fact is my uniform was too heavy for me!”
“I was only able to put it on [for the first time] the night before, but I didn’t think it was going to be that heavy. It weighed 40, 40-some pounds with the helmet and all the batteries. I wanted my tribute to be great for Black History Month. I wanted it to be good and I guess I put that before anything.”
Obviously not taking into account the ramifications for such a questionable decision, he elected to wear it during his ring walk anyway.
Even if the costume did effect Wilder’s performance slightly, it wasn’t by much. Many knew leading into this rematch who the better fighter was and what the proper adjustments would have to be made by Wilder in order to win.
Yet we saw none! Yes he jabbed a little more, but was still heavily dependent on landing a big right-hand!
His corner appeared to not have a plan outside of landing the money shot as well. Fury, who forced Wilder onto his back foot ,which was the right thing to do, simply outclassed and beat-up the the former champion to take his WBC title.
At the end of the day, it was more of Fury being the better fighter and Wilder not improving beforehand that led to this defeat. Not a 40LB costume!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
On the topic of his trainer Mark Breland, the former champion made it clear that he was upset with him and it wasn’t an emotional “in-the-moment” type of frustration. Wilder expressed that his team is well aware of his want to go out on his shield no matter how he may look in a fight. No matter how badly beaten, bloody and out-classed he is in a fight, NEVER throw in that towel!
As reported previously by 3kingsboxing.com, his manager Jay Deas had the same sentiment. He claimed that he did not agree with Breland throwing the towel in and that Wilder had plenty of fight left in him.
Wilder himself claimed he had five rounds left (meaning he could have finished the fight) according to the interview with Yahoo!
At the moment, it is unclear if Breland will be back in the corner of Wilder as the Alabamian plans to exercise his rematch clause which will produce a trilogy with Fury possibly by the summer!
By: Jerrell Fletcher & EJ Williams
