Deontay Wilder: “He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is, Kevin [Iole], that my uniform was way too heavy for me. I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight. In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through. But I’m a warrior and people know that I’m a warrior. It could easily be told that I didn’t have legs or anything. A lot of people were telling me, ‘It looked like something was wrong with you.’ Something was, but when you’re in the ring, you have to bluff a lot of things. I tried my best to do so. I knew I didn’t have the legs because of my uniform. I was only able to put it on [for the first time] the night before but I didn’t think it was going to be that heavy. It weighed 40, 40-some pounds with the helmet and all the batteries. I wanted my tribute to be great for Black History Month. I wanted it to be good and I guess I put that before anything.”
Deontay Wilder is apparently blaming his 7th round TKO loss to Tyson Fury over the weekend on weakened legs that were triggered from Wilder’s outlandish ring entrance that saw him wear a festooned costume that resembled a layer of knight's armor with a helmet that covered Wilder’s face.
Wilder told Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports that the weight of the costume, which was over 40 pounds according to Wilder, fatigued his legs before the fight, as he admitted that he didn’t have his legs under him after the second round of the ill-fated fight that ruined his unblemished record.
Wilder shut down the rumors that he may have ruptured his eardrum from a head shot early in the fight, that would have in-turn disrupted his equilibrium. Many had questioned the wellbeing of Wilder after the first couple rounds because he appeared to be alarmingly wobbly and unable to stay square and upright on his feet, looking completely belligerent at times.
Wilder says the punches from Fury did not injure him at all, instead sticking with the story that the weight of the costume was too heavy and had weakened his legs coming in.
The now-defeated fighter, who came into Saturday's bout sporting an immaculate 42-0-1 record with 41 KO's, says he's severed ties with assistant trainer Mark Breland for 'throwing in the towel' too early, telling Yahoo Sports:
“I am upset with Mark for the simple fact that we’ve talked about this many times and it’s not emotional. It is not an emotional thing, it’s a principal thing. We’ve talked about this situation many, many years before this even happened. I said as a warrior, as a champion, as a leader, as a ruler, I want to go out on my shield. If I’m talking about going in and killing a man, I respect the same way. I abide by the same principal of receiving. So I told my team to never, ever, no matter what it may look like, to never throw the towel in with me because I’m a special kind. I still had five rounds left. No matter what it looked like, I was still in the fight.”