Deontay Wilder posted a long video on Instagram today, saying he won’t listen to his critics and suggesting that he should retire.
The former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) turned 39 last month in October and has lost four out of his last five fights. His last loss, a fifth-round knockout to Zhilei Zhang on June 1st, was an especially embarrassing one, given how he got spun around and flattened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Wilder Refusing To Confront The Truth
That was Wilder’s second consecutive loss in Riyadh, and it’s possible that he won’t be invited back by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh after that one. While Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are both losing, they haven’t been beaten twice in a row like Wilder.
Earlier this week, Wilder revealed that he had fought with a broken right arm in his losses to Joseph Parker and Zhang in 2024. Fans didn’t believe a world Wilder was saying and saw it as a classic example of a fighter creating excuses to try and keep people from jumping overboard his sinking ship.
They feel that Wilder doesn’t want to confront the truth that he’s shot and was perhaps never a good fighter.
Wilder’s resume shows that he’s faced beatable opposition every step of the way up until his match against Tyson Fury in 2018 when he was exposed by a basically British-level heavyweight. Deontay made Fury look good, and he had been just as protected.
Wilder Stubborn & Defiant
“Listen, everyone is going to have an opinion about you, but those opinions don’t matter. You’re going to have life hit you and knock you down,” said Deontay Wilder on Instagram. “It’s the mindset to keep pushing forward.
“I been through losses way before boxing. I’ve been through challenges way before I stepped foot in the ring. I’ve been hit and knocked down way before I put a pair of boxing gloves on. I’m still here, because it’s the mindset to get back up and keep pushing forward…Another important mission is to get in the ring and do what I was meant to do,” said Wilder.
If Deontay is going to resume his career, he’s going to need to do three things if he wants to right his ship before she sinks:
- Fire trainer Malik Scott
- Take four rebuilding fights
- Permanently stay away from punchers