A long reigning former heavyweight champion has declared ‘he’s back’ after suffering back to back defeats.
Deontay Wilder made ten successful defences of his WBC belt before being dethroned by Tyson Fury in their rematch after a controversial draw first time out. ‘The Gypsy King’ would once again beat the American in their trilogy fight the following year.
After a bounce-back first round knockout of Robert Helenius in 2022, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ would once again go on to lose two fights on the spin, this time at the hands of Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
In an honest interview with Boxing Scene, the 39-year-old admitted that his confidence had been lost after his run of poor form but that successful shoulder surgery and sorting out personal matters in his life had made him regain that self belief which he says he’s now ready to show.
“I’ve been trying to build confidence, especially in the last two fights, just trying to build the confidence back in me, thinking I could gain it back in the gym or if I hit the bag longer, or beat up sparring partners, I was thinking I was building that confidence back up, but in the mist of it it’s draining out of me because of other stuff that is going on.
I lost my whole confidence, that confidence in me, but it’s back, I’m returning to the ring and the confidence is back and it’s going to have to be something I have got to show. With no injuries I can thrown this right hand as hard and as fast as I want to, not thinking about anything, not having a second delay I could shoot it right off with no pain.”
Wilder will return to the ring for the first time in over a year this weekend when he faces relatively unknown heavyweight Tyrrell Herndon. If he can get past Herndon, the former champion has already set his sights on a long overdue clash with Anthony Joshua.
