Like every other decent human being on the planet, Deontay Wilder was and still is outraged over what happened to George Floyd. The former WBC heavyweight king took to social media some hours ago, and he unleashed a powerful and quite brilliantly written poem expressing his anger over the racial tensions in his country.
Here is Wilder’s poem:
“TIL THIS Day. As if 400 years of slavery wasn’t enough. From the womb, as a black man we were born to be tough. Lynched, whipped, burned was a thing of the past but ‘TIL THIS DAY – jail, rape, gun, how long will it last? As if Malcolm X and MLK wasn’t a must. As Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin all died from just being us! Dark like molasses, black like the night. United we stand, together we fight. Fighting for Ahmaud Arbery and all of the others. Tell me, why y’all killing our sisters and brothers? TIL THIS DAY
“I don’t remember a time when none of my people did anything to you people, other than work hard and try to be equal. Now y’all mad at protests and riots? We showed you nothing but peace. We’re done being quiet.”
Muhammad Ali was a quite proficient poet during his career, with occasional work of a highly serious nature put out (such as Ali’s long poem written about the 1971 Attica Prison riot) – and now Wilder has shown he is capable of producing strong, thought-provoking material. Wilder’s poem speaks on behalf of many millions of African-Americans.
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Praise goes out to Wilder for saying what he has said in written form.
As far as Wilder’s boxing career is concerned, Bob Arum has told Sky Sports that money men in Macau, China are “ready to put the money up” for the Fury-Wilder III fight, to take place in either November or December. There is also a possibility the fight could take place in Australia or maybe even in Las Vegas, at the new stadium owned by NFL franchise the Las Vegas Raiders.
Arum says “we are waiting to see if the authorities in Macau will allow an event with full spectators in November or December.”
Wilder may well feel he has more to fight for than at any other time in his life and career.