Deontay Wilder Statement: Wow, what a hell of a night! I would like to first and foremost thank God for allowing me to give the world another part of me that’s driven with passion and determination. I would like to thank my team and my fans for sticking by my side through this long process.
I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed in the outcome but after reflecting on my journey, I now see that what God wanted me to experience is far greater than what I expected to happen. We didn’t get the win but a wise man once said the victories are within the lessons. I’ve learned that sometimes you have to lose to win. Although, I wanted the win I enjoyed seeing the fans win even more.
Hopefully, I proved that I am a true Warrior and a true King in this sport. Hopefully, WE proved that no matter how hard you get hit with trials and tribulations you can always pick yourself up to live and fight again for what you believe in.
Last but not least I would like to congratulate @gypsyking101 for his victory and thank you for the great historical memories that will last forever.
Now isn’t that nice!
Just hope he leaves it at that.
This had to take a lot for him to do and I hope Fury understands. It would be good to see these guys move forward on a positive note. I cannot blame Wilder for how he was after the 3rd fight. Anyone whos lost in a real combat sport knows its hard to suck it up just because the match ended. There are way too many emotions and on the losing end there are even more. Congrats to Wilder, it took him a few days but its good to see this said.
Good point!
This was nicely done, congrats Wilder. Belts are temporary, wisdom and character mean so much more.
Finally! Good for him!
Good man. Much respect to Wilder. I honestly thought he was going to come up with yet more preposterous excuses. Wilder is a true man for coming clean like this massive respect to him.
He’s a gracious loser. Real class.
lets hope he does not retire he is the number 2-3 in the world and it would be great if he fought the likes of aj whyte usyk joyce and sanchez who is also very good
No reason he should retire unless his heart is no longer in it. Fought a tremendous fight, needs 6 months, but plenty of big fights for him.
Fury had a terrific chin and amazing powers of recovery. Usyk looks a better boxer but so much smaller and chin not tested – Wilder a underdog but must have a good shot. AJ likewise would still be a stadium fight if AJ wins or looses his rematch.
Whyte / Parker – hard to imagine they would not get caught early.
It’s his call
“terrific chin”…that is an understatement…Fury was hit by the best …short…1, 2 punch…left, right punch…I have witnessed since Foreman knocked out Moorer….Wilder can punch…watch the replay..you can actually see the effect of the punch on Fury’s chin and it seemingly moves through Fury’s entire upper torso….just amazing…Took alot of Heart to get up survive, recover and keep fighting….
I wonder if, were he interested (and I’m sure he is not), could Wilder make cruiserweight. It would be a helluva late career credit if he dropped to cruiser and spent a year or two as the dominant fighter in that division.
And good on him for doing this.
Now what fighter has ever been a heavyweight champion and left the division to become a cruiserweight. A division with no money and no fame. Bone skinny 6’7 and 212 can’t make 200. Man I want what you smoke
I could be wrong but I think Chris Byrd may’ve done it and Roy Jones surely left his heavyweight title to return to light heavyweight. And who cares if no one else has done it? It actually would make it even better.
Hardly ever see heavyweight champions as two division champions. Off the top of my head, Roy, Usyk, David Haye, Holyfield…. Bob Fitzsimmons? Maybe I’m missing someone. I’m just wondering, like I said, I don’t at all expect him to do it.
@Lucie Leon Spinks went to Cruiser after being Heavyweight Champion. Orlin Norris won a World Title at Cruiser after being a Heavyweight contender for a long time. Eddie Chambers dropped down to that division as well. No way Wilder makes Cruiser though. He was 238 for Fury 3. I doubt he even sees 215 again.
I think I was trying to think of Eddie Chambers, I got stuck thinking of a guy named Matt Godfrey though for some reason, he was always a cruiser. I had no idea that Spinks had done it and I just forgot about Orlin Norris. Orlin was excellent. Best cruiser in the world for awhile.
I know Wilder had bulked up for the last two Fury fights. It’ll be interesting to see which weight he chooses to fight at for the rest of his career. The one fight he went the distance in, he was 212.
The difference is wilder does not walk around at the larger weight where other fighters walk around at a larger weight and than lose weight
@Lucie Yep, Spinks went down to fight Dwight Muhammad Qawi, who was coming up from Light Heavy. Spinks took a nasty beating in that one.
Agree with you on Orlin BTW. Excellent fighter.
Guys that were champions at heavyweight that dropped down. Byrd had a. Outlet of joke fights after being heavyweight no idea why. Maybe to end his career with a win. Did Jones even fight another heavyweight after Ruiz? The rest are guys that were really too small to compete as a quality heavyweight and fit in much better down a division.
@Lucie: The bad thing is going back down in weight from hw the boxers seem to permanently lose most of their punch resistance. Jones Jr and Byrd were sad examples of this. Roy never was the same again after the John Ruiz hw fight. Byrd looked like a rag doll at 174.
@Henry v V Exactly right. Byrd looked terrible against Shaun George. Byrd didn’t react well at all to getting hit by George, who wasn’t a big puncher.
Jones looked rock solid against Ruiz as far as having zero body fat. He must have drained the shyt out of himself to get back down to 175, and it showed. Always thought Jones could have extended his stay at the top of the sport by going to Cruiser rather than Light Heavy after Ruiz. Jones vs. Tarver at Cruiser probably would have looked a lot different.
That’s an excellent point by you and USF. I remember watching Chris Byrd fight David Tua and spend virtually the entire fight standing right in front of him outbox him. But he gets ko’d by Shaun George.
And I agree USF, a kind of late prime Jones against the likes of Tarver and Vasiliy Jirov at cruiserweight would have been very interesting.
@Johnny Ace:
– How’s the ‘Stick going?
– I left a rambling response to you on the Boxing Buzz post on 10/12.
– Take care
Hey thanks I will check it out. Still trying to figure out what to get Kodi add on or direct download to Downloader app. Hopefully I figure that all out before next ppv. Thanks again appreciate it
Lucie: Technically you are correct, when Wilder was weighing 212 he could have cut weight down to 200 before weigh in and then hydrate again to somewhere close to 212.
He could move down to that new Super Cruiserweight division the WBC just created.
Maybe Forman could’ve done it too, or perhaps Brett Favre could become heavyweight champion some day
No money there even if undisputed champ. No glamour fights. Terrible idea
Stop wondering things like that, Lucie. Natural heavyweights never go down in weight. That’s a boxing law.
lol! You’re right. I am sorry…. But someday, SOMEONE will come along and be the first! Mark my words!
@Lucie Not sure what Wilder’s future looks like at Heavyweight. He’s still fun to watch, and there are several interesting matchups and $$$ out there for him, but the Fury roadblock doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Usyk/Joshua are winnable fights for him, so he could pick up another belt I suppose. The Cruiser idea is an interesting one, but even though he’s fought at around 212 before, he’s up to a somewhat solid looking 238 now. He would have to drop whatever fat he has in addition to probably losing some muscle in the process, and the fact that he’s not super young at 35 doesn’t make it any easier. IMO, he should be aiming for Usyk/Joshua.
@USFBulls727: And turning 36 in a week’s time unfortunately.
I’m expecting Usyk to beat Joshua again. If I’m right, I would like to think they’d finally get around to finally making Wilder – Joshua, they’d both be in the same spot, having come off of two losses to the same opponent (Kownacki is there too now on a smaller scale). If I’m wrong and Joshua wins and they go onto a trilogy with Usyk then… I mean, I think we’d probably end up seeing Wilder against like Ruiz or Martin or Helenius.
I know it may be really difficult for him to make cruiser now and I’m sure he’d have no interest in it, I was just kind of thinking out loud and I thought it would be a really cool way for him to end his career: long reigning heavyweight champion, one of the biggest punchers of all time, ends up as undisputed cruiserweight champion. No one has done that!
And I am very curious what weight he continues at. I’m assuming he bulked up specifically for Fury. If he ended up fighting Ruiz or someone like Usyk, I wonder if he’d try to cut back into the 210’s.
I also believe Usyk will beat Joshua again, with Wilder being a possible opponent for Usyk afterwards. I’m curious about Wilder’s weight in the future as well. I suspect he’ll range from 220-240 from here on out, but who knows. Maybe he does settle back into the 210’s where he’s had a lot of success. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking most Heavyweights through the history of the sport generally have drifted upwards in weight at the stage of their careers that Wilder’s currently in.
Wilder-Usyk feels like a really strange match-up to me for some reason.
Wilder’s handlers wrote that for him. Wilder wanted to say he was tired out from his new costume and Fury’s gloves were loaded and the referee was racist plus he broke his hand.
No matter what, we still want to see your devastating punch again and again. Keep it going.
very nice. someone writes beautifully đŸ™‚
Lol
Do you honestly think he wrote that?
Regardless, he approved it. What more matters?
No.
Uh, I thought Wilder only believed in himself, not God. Wilder likes to walk around and thanks he is the Almighty. I guess he got taken back down to earth by a man that actually does believe in God.
Ya HeavyHitters, clean living Wilder is a Godless egotistical heathen but coke head alcoholic Fury brought him back down to earth and showed how true faith triumphs? That analysis is so spot on. Did you major in theology… maybe philosophy?
Wilder was talking different, decent, even before this III fight, and now after the fight as well. He obviously has been going through something for him to be like this.
I am still concerned, and no one else is mentioning this – What was wrong with Wilder in fight III when he went back to his corner, right from the start of the fight. He was sitting with his eyes closed and had a dazed sleepy look about him. Fight #II he came into the ring even before the fight already doing this. And picked this up in his later fights, even before the Fury fights.
– Teddy Atlas talked about Wilder not congratulating Fury after the fight on his pod cast and had some interesting remarks (as always).
– I gained more respect watching Wilder continuing to try for a hay maker right and to end the fight while he was gassed and out on his feet several times, than in any of his victories.
– Thanx for standing up, Deonte. Good for you.
time to retire you did your best it was a heck of a fight fury is a big dude at 278 pounds take a long vacation and reflect on the future
The second fight Wilders team threw in the towel. This time they threw in a blanket and pillow.
I figured Wilder needed to cool down a bit. He and Fury will end up life long friends. Hopefully Wilder will also extended this forgiveness to Mark Breland. He said some pretty hateful things about the man.
Yea, he’s a gracious looser!!! Took a week to convince him to do the right thing. And its a prepared statement for damage control. Anyone can see that.
Deontay thank you for all the great fights you gave me over the years. You won me over slowly at first, but I am now and always will be a fan of the Bronze Bomber. Please don’t retire as you are clearly the very best save one. You deserve to earn as much as possible for you and your great family. Again as a fan of The Sweet Science I thank you.
Too little too late! Don’t bitch up now Wilder, we all saw your true colors right after the fight, nothing that you say now is going to change that, so fuck off loser.
That doesn’t count it should be in person like a real man not behind a computer or a PR person. It’s not authentic whatsoever.