Deontay Wilder is warming up for one of his final sessions ahead of this weekend when he stops to pretend he’s waving goodbye.
“Like a Queen does,” he said, as he pretends to gesture to a crowd as royalty would as they pass in a cortege. Wilder, 38, contemplates about what could happen if he loses against veteran Chinese star Zhilei Zhang in Riyadh on Saturday night.
“This is the be all and end all fight,” the American said. “Whoever wins this one, they go forward and the loser goes back to the lab to pick up the pieces and has to decide whether or not to retire.
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“I’ve been very successful inside and outside of the ring. If all things go wrong, I could be holding my hand up like the Queen and saying farewell.
“The only sad thing is for the fans. The saying is you only miss what you don’t have when it is gone. Unfortunately that would be me.
“I keep the heavyweight division exciting and, to not have me, I think it would be boring. I’m looking forward to the win, it’s not time for me to retire just yet.”
(Image: Getty Images)
(Image: Getty Images)
But as he stretches out at a gym in the sweltering centre of the Saudi capital, he soon switches back into his motivation – to be the heavyweight king. “Being in this fight is so important to me, it brings the fuel to the fire,” he added.
“It makes me work harder to do more. That’s why I became a gym rat and show them who the real Deontay Wilder is. To be a true warrior, to be the true king you have to have the mentality that you’re the best.
“I want to be the king again. I want the chance to be undisputed champion. I feel like that got robbed from me many times. I had no dancing partner that wanted to give me the opportunity. I’m still here trying to pick up the pieces and hopefully I can get to that point where I’m the undisputed champion.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Wilder knows he has to rebuild his stock before he can start calling out undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk, old rival Tyson Fury or even foe Anthony Joshua. His December defeat by Joseph Parker ruined a two-fight deal which was in place to face ‘AJ’ which could have been worth north of £100m.
But now he’s in this weekend’s ‘5v5’ card – on TNT Sports – representing Matchroom and Eddie Hearn, in a turn of events which could only happen due to the Saudi riches on offer. “I’m a team player,” said the former WBC champion. “I’ve bought along with what is going on. He made me the captain.
“Eddie got his fighters, I was a part of a different world and we were enemies, but we are coming together. We can’t have the attitude of the past, we have compromised to exist in each other’s world.”
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The relationship means he is more confident a fight with Joshua will happen. “The future is bright,” said Wilder. “It will be a damn shame if it doesn’t.” But to reignite that talk, Wilder must fire up his own career. The ‘Bronze Bomber’ couldn’t detonate on Parker in December.
He was flat and didn’t bring much fear. It came after just one fight – a first round knockout victory against Robert Helenius – in the space of over two years from his second loss to Fury. Wilder boasted about being ‘reborn’ and a calmer figure following a psychedelic drug programme abroad.
But now he insists he has gone back to the ‘old crazy Wilder’ which had fans on tenterhooks waiting for his right hand – which has stopped 42 fights – to land. “For many years I got crucified, my name got dragged in the dirt for talking about hurting a man or even killing a man,” he said.
“Here, they want me to be me. Everyone missed the old Wilder. That’s a thing that bothers me. When I possess that killer instinct of a fighter, when I express that I’m only doing it to allow people to understand what it is to be a warrior and have the warrior mindset.
“I found peace but when I found peace they didn’t want that either. I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Being here in Saudi, being amongst the elite guys, they didn’t want the peaceful Wilder, they wanted what they call the ‘crazy Wilder’.
“That’s what has relit me, that’s what has put fuel to my fire. Here I am again.”
Watch ‘5 vs 5: Queensberry vs Matchroom’ live from Riyadh on TNT Sports Box Office from 7pm on Saturday. For more info: tntsports.co.uk/boxoffice