Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder confirmed today that he’d be continuing his career at a statue unveiling ceremony in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
If Wilder does continue, he’ll be in excellent shape to challenge for the soon to be vacated WBC title. Tyson Fury claims he’s retiring from the sport, but he still hasn’t officially vacated his WBC strap.
Once he does, #1 ranked Deontay will be one of the contenders in the World Boxing Council’s top five that will be given the option to battle for the vacated title.
The 36-year-old Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) doesn’t want to stop his journey after 14 years as a pro. Unfortunately, Wilder hasn’t won a fight in close to three years since his victory over Luis Ortiz in 2019.
“I can’t stop right here. I must continue my journey. I have to, I have to,” said Deontay Wilder on Wednesday in confirming that he’ll be continuing his career.
It’s taken Deontay a while to decide between continuing his career, but it’s good that he’s made up his mind quickly. He’s been out of the ring for seven months thus far, so there’s a possibility he could get one fight under his belt in 2022 if he’s mentally ready to resume his career.
In the 6’7″ Deontay’s last fight, he was stopped in the eleventh round by WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in a thrilling brawl that saw both fighters down repeatedly. Wilder was dropped three times, and Fury twice.
Many boxing fans believed that Fury was given a long count in the fourth round when he was dropped hard by a clubbing right hand from Wilder.
It appeared that 11 seconds ticked off the clock when Fury dragged himself off the canvas, and some fans believe it was another fight involving the British fighter in which he dodged a knockout loss against Deontay. In their first fight in 2018.
Fury was knocked cold by Wilder in the 12th, and the referee surprisingly gave a count while he was in that state.
With Fury gone, Deontay has an excellent chance of dominating the heavyweight division like he’d been doing. Fury was a difficult style match-up for Deontay, but he was still able to arguably knock him out in two of their fights.
In the second fight, Fury got away with many rabbit punches that should have led to him being penalized by the referee. After getting clipped by a rabbit shot in the fourth round, Wilder never seemed to recover, which is a pity because it would have been an exciting fight.
