“He Ain’t the Champion Yet”- Deontay Wilder Refuses to Recognise Tyson Fury as Champion

It seems like, the former WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder has not been taking his first career loss too well. A reaction that is completely justified as Tyson Fury dropped Wilder twice and stopped him in the seventh round from retaining his title.

However, Fury is not the champion in Wilder’s eyes. He insists that the Wilder that we saw take on Fury was not the best version of him. In addition, Wilder refuses to recognize Fury as the champion until Fury wins in the third edition of their trilogy fight.

“You don’t go backward, you move forwards, and that night, I wasn’t myself. There’s a lot of things I can’t say. We can only get stronger and learn from the situation and get better. In my eyes, I don’t see Fury as a champion. It’s still going. He ain’t the champion yet. We still got one more fight left.”- Deontay Wilder on the PBC Podcast

Wilder admits that everything went wrong for him 15 minutes leading into the fight. Refusing to get into the details about the fight, Wilder maintains that he wasn’t himself and everyone knows that the Wilder that they saw was different.

“I can’t talk about a lot of things. But that wasn’t Deontay Wilder that night. You could see from the mask and my reaction, and certain things that I was doing in the ring from the first fight to the second fight. I know that wasn’t me. Everyone in boxing knows that wasn’t the real Deontay Wilder.”- Deontay Wilder

Even though Wilder claims to have left the loss against Fury in the past. It seems a little hard to believe considering his comments on the same. Either way, Wilder confirms that their upcoming fight is the last straw and it will decide who the true champion is.

Initially, the third fight was supposed to take place on the 18th of July. However, the Coronavirus epidemic threw a wrench in those plans. As of now, the fight might take place sometime in October, says Top Rank CEO Bob Arum as reported by ESPN.

Many in the world of boxing feel that Wilder lacks the tools to make the required adjustments to triumph over Fury. However, that is what The Bronze Bomber has promised. And it will be interesting to see if he can come through.

Who do you back in the final showdown of this epic saga?