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It feels like ever since Mike Tyson’s career went down the mouth of madness, boxing’s star power went right along with him (no shots to Lennox Lewis) and with the rise of fighters like Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao made the sports heavyweight title became almost irrelevant.
Now that the aforementioned stars are basically out the game, Deontay Wilder is looking to bring some attention to the heavyweight division and the current champion’s been building quite the name for himself.
Currently sitting on a 40-0 record (his goal is to go 51-0), the champ stomped through The Breakfast Club to talk about his fight with Luis Ortiz, why he won’t sign with Eddie Hearns, and wanting to catch a body in the ring.
Here are the 10 things we learned from Deontay Wilder on The Breakfast Club.
1. Ortiz
Even though Luis Ortiz tested positive for PED’s in the past, Deontay Wilder says he wasn’t worried about going through for the fight because he has a “warrior mentality and mindset.” So he goes into every fight confident that no one can beat him.
2. Anthony Joshua
Wilder says he was going to go see the Joshua/Parker fight, but his manager says that Anthony Joshua’s people didn’t want him in attendance and was willing to up his security and possibly even a restraining order. What part of the game is this?! As for the fight, Wilder isn’t going to predict the winner of the Joshua/Parker fight but will say whatever happens will go down in the later rounds.
3. Hearns
He feels that Eddie Hearns only wants to sign him because he wants Wilder as a “safe haven because he knows I’ma beat Joshua.” He says Hearns wants Wilder to fight his other contender, Dillian Whyte, instead of Joshua. He does acknowledge that he doesn’t need a Anthony Joshua fight for his career, but does want what Joshua wants and that’s to unify the division. Wilder just feels that he wants it more than AJ.
4. Not The Average Fighter
Deontay does admit that his style is “awkward” and does “all the wrong things in boxing” but at the end of the day “I knock people out.” No disputing the end results.
5. Troll Hunter
Earlier in his career Wilder actually went to Cali and confronted a racist internet troll who spoke about tying up his daughter and though he didn’t put hands on him, he made his point clear. That being said he says he’s a “peaceful person until you break that peace.”
6. Life After
Sooner or later, the champ wants to get into the acting game. He says he likes to act goofy and silly and though he’s never acted before he did do church plays which he took seriously.
7. Deontay Loves The Kids
Wilder says he got into boxing because so he could support his daughter. He quit college and everything to make it in this sport and though he does give his kids what they want he says he won’t spoil them because he was raised believing that you have to work for what you want. Good call.
8. Mike Tyson
Wilder doesn’t feel that past heavyweight champions don’t support today’s class of fighters especially the American champs. He even says Mike Tyson used to hate on him in the beginning but that he loves Mike and has nothing against him. He does say that whenever Mike fought the top guy in the sport “he lost.” He took issue with Tyson comparing Wilder knocking people out to his own 12-year-old son knocking people out (huh?) saying “Now you comparing me to a child… I just took that as some envying type stuff.” That being said, Wilder remembers the time Holyfield once told people that Wilder was going to one day be the heavyweight champion of the world.
9. Weapons By The Side
Even though his hands are registered weapons, Wilder is well within his legal rights to use them to defend himself should someone come at him sideways trying to start drama. In other words, Deontay got them hammers on him 24/7 ready to catch bodies looking to die.
10. If He Dies, He Dies
Wilder says that when it’s all said and done, he wants a body on his boxing record Ivan Drago style (whoa!). That’s part of the reason he wears the mask, to show his opponents that he’s a warrior and he’s there for one reason: fight to the death. Note to his future opponents: you better be ready to die.
