Deontay Wilder’s claims that his ring walk costume weight hindered his performance against Tyson Fury are looking, suspect.
An old interview of Wilder on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast has been unearthed. Wilder describes using a 45lb weighted vest for his training.
“We do everything fast. If I’m doing that consists of moving my feet it’s sprinting. I wear a 45lb vest on me as well to in all my exercises and everything I do to have that extra weight on me.”
Wilder spoke with Yahoo Sports revealing that his ring walk costume affected his legs because it weighed 40lbs.
He said he didn’t try on the costume before waking to the ring and that the ensemble was a tribute to Black History Month.
“He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is, Kevin, that my uniform was way too heavy for me,” said Wilder to 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.”
The costume revelations join other reasons why Wilder feels his performance wasn’t his best against Tyson Fury.
New Conspiracy Theory
Wilder has been critical of his assistant trainer Mark Breland for throwing in the towel in the seventh round. Wilder also suggests Breland was influenced by boxer Anthony Dirrell.
According to Wilder, Dirrell repeatedly yelled for Wilder’s trainers to stop the fight. The former WBC super-middleweight champion is trained by Fury’s head trainer, Javan “Sugar Hill” Steward.
“And then getting influenced by the opposite team, one of the guys that train with the opposite trainer, you know, it makes you think,” Wilder said to Boxing Scene. “He was influenced by [Anthony] Dirrell. They said [Anthony] Dirrell was in back of him screaming, ‘Throw the towel in! We love our champ!’
“And, you know, [Anthony] works with ‘Sugar’ as well, the opposite trainer, Tyson’s trainer. [Dirrell] works with him, too. [Breland] said he didn’t hear nothing, but everybody’s saying the same thing. A lot of people that’s around, a lot of people that was in my camp, and if everybody’s hearing it and if my people in the corner can hear him, and Mark said he can’t hear [him], there’s something wrong with that. It’s a lot going on with Mark as well.”
