Deontay Wilder may not have been at his best on Saturday night against Tyson Fury.
The boxer revealed on Monday, on the Sirius/XM show hosted by Randy Gordon and Gerry Cooney, that an injury impacted his trainig camp for the Dec. 1 scrap against the valiant Traveller.
“12 weeks before the camp I broke my hand. I don’t make excuses. People don’t know these things,”said the 40-0-1 Alabama-based boxer.
“I broke my right hand 12 weeks before the camp. Even in camp I barely ever threw my right hand; you can ask all my sparring partners. That could have been another reason why I was so off as well too. I had all these sparring partners and most of the whole camp was nothing but jabs,” he said.
Well, we do know that his accuracy wasn’t anywhere near what we’ve seen before, though we attributed that mainly to the defensive prowess of the Gypsy King….But maybe Wilder was more than a bit affected by that injury.
“I don’t make excuses. It was a great fight. You got the best of Tyson Fury and you only got the half-best of me. And I still did what I had to do. Imagine me with my full potential. That was all my fault; I blame myself.”
ALSO: Wilder admitted he didn't work the game-plan on fight night:
“There’s a lot of things I’m going to go back and adjust. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. I bended the gameplan. I know everything I need to do; the rematch will prove it all. We’re still the champion. I’m the man.”
“Nothing he did affected me. The punches didn’t affect me. I was fighting myself and him. I take nothing away from Fury and he made this fight great. We knew what he was going to bring to the table; I made this fight way harder than it needed to be.”
“Trust me. We got it. My mind was locked on that [on KOing him]. I’ve learned my lesson. Second time around it’ll be a lot different. I won’t let my emotions get the best of me. It was a great event and I wanted to end it as that.”
“I take nothing from him. The fight was amazing.”
My three cents: Was this really Wilder at 50%? Only he can say or know for certain. But if his right hand and his accuracy and such were affected, does that make how you see a rematch going any different?