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Steve KimESPN
Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder said he had surgery on his left bicep following his seventh round loss to Tyson Fury on Feb. 22.
“Recovery is going well,” the 34-year-old Wilder told the PBC podcast. “I’m in therapy. I ended up injuring it in my last fight, somewhere up in there. But everything is going great with it. That’s another thing I’m just focusing in on — recovery, getting myself back to full health.
“I can’t work out right now. That’s what I’m looking forward to, once I get healed with my arm. I’m just looking forward to working out, being able to do the things I love to do.”
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), who is staying secluded in Alabama during this coronavirus pandemic, has taken time to reflect on his first professional loss. After a draw in his initial meeting against Fury in December 2018, he was drubbed by the British heavyweight in the rematch.
“Everything that happened, it happened the last 15 minutes until the fight,” Wilder said. “There’s a lot of things that went on. There’s a lot of things that I don’t even want to talk about at this moment in time. I’m still reflecting on certain things, and I can’t believe the things that happened to me. And they happened to me at that point in my career.”
Days after his loss, Wilder said he believed his elaborate and gaudy ring outfit was so heavy that it wore down his legs as he made his way into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“It’s easy to understand what type of person Deontay Wilder was at that moment in time. Even when I took off my mask, the things that I was doing. I’ve been in this sport for a very long time. People have seen me fight all over the world for a very long time. So people automatically know how I am, know how I should look. People that know boxing, know that wasn’t Deontay Wilder that night. I was a zombie that night.”
What still puzzles Wilder is that, instead of using his normally aggressive strategy, he was in retreat against Fury, who came in at a robust 273 pounds — 42 pounds more than Wilder.
“You don’t go backwards, you go forward. And that night I wasn’t myself,” said Wilder, who invoked the clause for the third fight, which he believes will happen by the end of 2020.
When boxing returns, Wilder says he will have some new faces in his corner.
“We’ve been having a lot of people reach out,” Wilder said. “But you just have to be careful with that, because people just see this time, see publicity. They want to be able to say that they was the name that came in and stuff like that, and just look at it in a different way. You have to be careful about the people you bring around.”
During a pro career that started in 2008, Wilder has been trained by Jay Deas and Mark Breland. Wilder didn’t speak specifically on their status.
“I am looking to bring someone in, for sure,” Wilder said. “We don’t have it down, yet. But I’m definitely bringing two people in. …. But we’ll see what happens. I think we’ve got a great team that’s going to be formed.”
Wilder said former two-time heavyweight champion George Foreman has reached out to him.
“We talked about things that went on in his career, good and bad, a lot of different tricks of the trade that used to happen, certain things that he saw in the fight, and a lot of knowledge that he applied to me,” Wilder said. “He was telling me how we wanted to show me some methods of strengthening certain parts of my body and stuff like that. He definitely dropped a couple of gems down for me and it was good to hear.”
Wilder insists his mind and body are completely mended and he now looks forward to evening the score with Fury and regaining his title.
“He knows that wasn’t me. Everyone knows that wasn’t me,” Wilder said. “.. We’ll show it, like I said. There’s a time and a place for it all, and I’ll reveal a lot of things. But I’m looking forward to it, actually. I can’t wait to give the people what they want to see.”