Deontay Wilder has spoken out publicly for the first time since his loss to Zhilei Zhang.
The long-reigning WBC Heavyweight World Champion lost his title to Tyson Fury in 2020 and failed to win it back in their trilogy bout a year later.
After 12 months of inactivity he returned to stop Robert Helenius in one round, but then took another extended break before losing to Joseph Parker over the distance in December of 2023.
Despite promising to be more destructive in his return against Zhilei Zhang, it was Wilder himself who was knocked out in the fifth round, leaving many in the sport feeling he should call time on an impressive career.
Trainer Malik Scott confirmed his man would fight on, and now Wilder himself has confirmed as much to TMZ. He also revealed that he suffered a broken arm before the Parker fight and fought through it both then and against China’s Zhang.
“Yeah we’re still training. I broke my arm way back in November some time and I didn’t know. I had two tears on my shoulder and stuff like that. Stretching out I could feel the pain but I just thought it was old injuries and stuff so I never got it checked out, I just thought I could go to my therapist … but to come to find out on my very last [session], that’s when I got MRI’d, that everything was f***ed up in there. I didn’t know cause I got a high tolerance of pain.”
‘The Bronze Bomber’ – who was seen in a sling in September – also pointed to issues outside the ring as a reason for his recent radio silence.
“For me, the best is yet to come. Yeah, we’re still going. We’re still here, we’ll just get thing together. I had a lot of outside distractions that I had to get rid of. A lot of burden up on me. I took care of a lot of people, man. It just came to a point where I couldn’t do it no more. I got seven kids of my own I can’t take care of everybody. Even the closes ones to me, I’ve been betrayed by so many people. It’s been a domino effect for the last five years. Anybody know about betrayal it’s worse than heartbreak.”
Finally, Wilder responded to talk of a fight with Francis Ngannou, who fought and lost to both Fury and Anthony Joshua before returning to the MMA scene. The 39-year-old knockout artist expressed his interest in the Ngannou bout after wishing him well following the tragic death of his son, Kobe.
“Even since I’ve been off there’s been a lot of offers coming in. Different countries and stuff like that. Francis, what’s up brother? I hope everything’s going good for you man. I’m sorry for your loss. I can only imagine what it’s like to lose a child, man … Yeah that’s a conversation I’m still looking to get in there and we can talk about it. Any fight is competitive. You got a man that got two hands, two feet and a heart, that will to win, you got competition. You got a fight on your hands. That’s why when you get in the ring you respect every man that’s steps in there.”
Wilder did not confirm the status of his recovery and when he would be targetting his return.
