Matchroom team captain Deontay Wilder insists “Old Deontay” is back ahead of Saturday’s fight with Zhilei Zhang on DAZN PPV in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs), who has a poor 1-3 record in his last four fights, says he has regained his old self in his fight with Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) to show the fans .
Wilder’s self-belief in question
Promoter Eddie Hearn has tried to instill some confidence in Wilder to help his gunfighter regain the fire that has been missing in the last four years since his 2020 loss to Tyson Fury.
Hearn’s speeches will not bring Wilder back from 2015 because he is still moving. It is clear that he will not let go of what happened in Fury’s battle. If Wilder can forget and return to his old self, Zhang could be in trouble, but it seems like a pipe dream.
I don’t have much hope that Hearn will be able to put him to sleep and forget what Fury did to him four years ago. He should have been through there.
Wilder is still mentally shaken from that night, which doesn’t bode well for him going up against Zhang’s big southpaw next Saturday night. Zhang is not the type of fighter you want to face if you doubt your ability and are afraid to throw punches.
“Joseph Parker is an ordinary fighter. He’s not better than me,” said Deontay Wilder on TNT Sports Boxing, reacting to being told that Joseph Parker said he punches better than him. “I was just going out [last December]. I’m coming back now.
“I had no desire; I had no flame. The old Deontay is back now because of the people involved. ‘We want the Bronze Bomber. We are looking for that wild man.’ These are the exact words spoken to me.
So, when you are told that, you say, ‘I can be me. I can relax. I can say what I want because it brings back that fire and desire in my heart,” said Wilder.
Captain pressure
“In picking a captain, you need to pick a banker, and this is a tough fight,” said promoter Eddie Hearn of him picking Deontay Wilder as the captain of his Matchroom Boxing team for the 5V5 tournament on Saturday night.
“I saw the differences between the writers. They have Zhilei Zhang as a favorite. I don’t know, but those conversations Deontay talked about. I was in the room, and it’s okay to be an idiot. It’s okay to be violent. This is a fighting game. “This is a violent game, and I know that Deontay Wilder is going to be scared when Christu is going hard,” said Hearn.
The truth is that fighters no longer fear Wilder, as he has shown that he collapses under pressure four times. He just doesn’t have it anymore.
Deontay talks about being held back in his past fights and not feeling as comfortable attacking his opponents as he has in the past. He doesn’t say if he was caught and who made him afraid to let go of his hands.
It sounds like Wilder is coming up with excuses in an attempt to make sense of why his career has taken a hit.
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