Deontay Wilder shows humility in build-up to fight with Tyson Fury

To the misfits and colourful eccentrics that find a home in Las Vegas we can add Deontay Wilder, the zen heavyweight champion of the world. In his magnificent overcoat trimmed with exaggerated fur worn over a naked torso Deontay Wilder presents as a Sixties rock star seeking a righteous path through the material madness of wealth and celebrity.
Flamboyant in his fur-trimmed overcoat, Deontay Wilder arrives for a meeting with the media ahead of his fight with Tyson Fury. Picture: AP.Flamboyant in his fur-trimmed overcoat, Deontay Wilder arrives for a meeting with the media ahead of his fight with Tyson Fury. Picture: AP.
Flamboyant in his fur-trimmed overcoat, Deontay Wilder arrives for a meeting with the media ahead of his fight with Tyson Fury. Picture: AP.

Yes the obligatory bling around his neck and episodic shouts of “bomb Squad” respect the conventions of boxing’s macho milieu, but in repose Wilder projects a philosophical dimension utterly at odds with the violence in which he trades and the wild pronouncements favoured by his opponent on Saturday, the Morecambe mauler 
Tyson Fury, pictured.

“I’m an energy person. I have a sixth sense. I can feel vibes. That’s how I determine if I’m going to talk to a person, shake their hand. I’m a different kind of human being,” says Wilder.

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“When I look at life, the structure of it, and everything around it, I think differently. I go off the energy of how I feel. When I go places, and when I’m around people I don’t think I’m the giant in the room even though in reality my height towers over people. Being heavyweight champion of the world, having a great life, that don’t define me as a human being or how I should treat you. I don’t think I’m higher than anyone.”

While Fury’s signature move in the fight week ritual known as the “grand arrival” was to ask the audience if they were “ready for a f*****g war”, Wilder thanked attendees for coming and hoped both men would depart the scene in good health. Well, he was appointed the “boxers’ representative and ambassador for peace through sport” by Pope Francis during a private meeting at the Vatican before Christmas. Perhaps His Holiness had been in touch with the Tuscaloosa matriarchy.

“My grandma said I was anointed by God,” says Wilder. “The power is not the be all and end all. We only talk about my power because we are talking about boxing, but I’m very gifted in many ways people don’t understand.”

This coupling of decency and eccentricity might be a front, of course, and stands in marked contrast to less wholesome elements of Wilder’s fighting persona. That said, any flavour of mannerly behaviour is welcome in this town, and it was at least consistent with the deliberations proffered to selected media in his quarters in the executive end of the MGM Grand complex. There were few returns on the insults hurled his way by Fury 24 hours earlier, mostly appreciation for helping to bring boxing to a wider audience.

“As a fighter, he’s OK for me. We all say as fighters we want to whoop his ass because this is the ass-whooping business. As a human being I like Tyson Fury. I like the character that he brings. Like I always say I think he is a breath of fresh air for me. Having been in this business 12 years having to promote on my own, having to do a lot of things on my own. People would never understand what it took, and I say took because where we are now in America as far as boxing is concerned is amazing.

“Boxing in this country is nowhere near first, second, third, we are four, five, six, maybe seven. The things that are going on are elevating it. Everybody is getting into boxing now, whether it is a workout or they feel like they have the illusion of a career. We all have to start somewhere. It was tough just getting to a point where people could have insight, have knowledge about it, just coming to fights and realising, damn, we have a heavyweight champion of the world.

“He’s a bad ass. So when he came along and we did the first fight, I knew I could sit back and relax. I didn’t have to worry to myself is this the point where I have to say something? A lot of guys use different strategies, but I don’t have to get mad, I don’t have to get angry. I don’t have some type of vendetta towards you to want to whoop you. I get paid for this so I’m going to do what I say I’m going to do.”

Wilder is not all brotherly love. This is boxing after all, and when the conversation turned to Fury’s pledge to knock him out, his response was equally emphatic. “I’ve been in the game for 12 years. I have seen a lot of different things in this sport, amateur and professional, the different tactics fighters want to use. End of the day my mindset is what it is. Ain’t nothing knocking me off my game. Many people want to claim ‘he is getting in your head’ – but he can’t get in my head. I don’t believe anything he says.”