Deontay Wilder put on quite a spectacle as he walked down to the ring to face Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight title back in February, but a few days after suffering his first professional loss, he was blaming his elaborate costume he wore as the reason for his heavy defeat.
The costume, which included a helmet and a mask, weighed about 40 pounds, he said.
“He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is … that my uniform was way too heavy for me,” Wilder told Yahoo Sports. “I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight. In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through. But I’m a warrior and people know that I’m a warrior. It could easily be told that I didn’t have legs or anything. A lot of people were telling me, ‘It looked like something was wrong with you.’ Something was, but when you’re in the ring, you have to bluff a lot of things. I tried my best to do so. I knew I didn’t have the legs because of my uniform.
“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.”
Months later and the former champ clearly has his legs back under him.
Wilder was in a spirited mood as cameras caught him shirtless in the streets and twerking up a storm.
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Mike Altamura, part of the MTK Global company that manages boxing superstar Tyson Fury, recently stated locations are being considered for the third act of the Fury vs. Deontay Wilder trilogy that includes Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders.
WorldBoxingNews.com shared Altamura’s comments:
“We have been in constant discussions with our promoter Bob Arum and right now the prominent sites are Macau and Las Vegas. They’ve been discussing running the event at Allegiance Stadium, the new home of The Raiders.
“Kind of like a scaled-back event because they still have to figure out the capacity. And there is also the exciting proposition of the event coming to Sydney, Australia.
“I would say Australia is a slight outsider. I think Macau is looking pretty promising. From what I understand, Las Vegas is too.”
Wilder, 34, is 42-1-1, his only blemishes coming against Fury.
