Deontay Wilder finds himself having to make an important decision on his future after suffering back-to-back defeats.
The former WBC heavyweight champion was outpointed by Joseph Parker at the end of 2023, and just six months later tasted defeat once again when he was brutally knocked out by Zhilei Zhang in the fifth round of their showdown on the Matchroom v Queensberry 5v5 card in Riyadh.
The 39-year-old has now lost four times as a professional after being defeated by former rival Tyson Fury in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Speaking to TMZ recently, Wilder revealed was fighting with a broken arm in the clashes against Parker and 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, 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.”
On his future, Wilder has declared that ‘the best is yet to come’ and claimed he has been ‘betrayed’ by people close to him.
“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 closest 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.”
‘The Bronze Bomber’ is expected to return to the ring in 2025, as he looks to bounce back from those consecutive defeats and prove to fans and pundits around the world that he is still a serious threat at heavyweight.
