PA imagesFollowing his defeat on Saturday, Deontay Wilder has claimed his 40-pound costume ‘left his legs dead’ – implying it was the reason for his loss against Tyson Fury.
Boxers are known to want to make an entrance at the beginning of their fight, and this was probably the only thing Wilder achieved at his match against Fury Saturday night, February 22, in Las Vegas.
Walking up to the ring, Wilder sported an interesting costume consisting of a Michael Jackson-esque diamond studded jacket, along with a full-face skull mask and even a crown.
PA imagesIt also boasted a superhero-style logo in the centre of his chest with a ‘W’ on – presumably Wilder’s own personal logo.
However, the 34-year-old boxer is now blaming the costume for his defeat due to the weight of it – despite being 6ft 5in and weighing 96kg himself…
Speaking to Yahoo Sports, Wilder said:
He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is 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.
PA imagesWilder added that he had only tried the full costume one for the first time the night before the match and hadn’t realised how much it weighed.
He said:
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.
Prior to the match, Wilder had won all of his matches apart from his controversial draw with Fury in 2018.
PA imagesWilder had held the WBC Heavyweight Champion title for five years before losing his belt to 31-year-old Fury on Saturday night.
I can understand the loss being a knock to his ego, but no one likes a sore loser, Deontay.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.