By Kenneth Friedman: Tyson Fury’s new trainer Sugar Hill Steward isn’t sympathetic to Deontay Wilder’s excuse about his 40-lb costume weakening his legs before the fight last Saturday night. Sugar Hill says Fury was injured during training camp with ankle and an elbow problem as well as a cut, and he still found a way to win.
Wearing heavy gear and a mask for a prolonged period of time might have done Wilder in the way he claims.
No one really knows if Wilder’s costume hurt his performance
Wilder isn’t saying an injury led to his loss to Fury. Although Wilder was bleeding from his left ear during the fight, he’s blaming his defeat on his legs being weakened from him wearing his heavy ring walk costume for 15 to 20 minutes before the fight started.
Ultimately, the only way fans will find out if Wilder’s costume impacted his performance against Fury until after they face each other in a trilogy fight later this year.
Part of the costume was a mask that Wilder had on, which is something that would only want to wear briefly and not for 15-20 minutes before a fight.
Wilder’s excuses are being met with a mix of disgust, laughter, and anger from boxing fans, who feel that he’s just trying to deceive them by making explaining away his defeat. They want Wilder to give Fury credit, and say that he lost to the better man.
‘Sugar’ Hill after hearing about Wilder’s costume comments:
“We had injuries in camp. Tyson, hurt is ankles, they were all messed up – they have pictures of that – he suffered a cut in training camp. Tyson Fury wasn’t even getting hit to the head in training camp..(cont) #boxing
— Steve Kim (@StevESPNKim) February 25, 2020
Fury was hurt during training camp – Sugar Hill
“I think at the beginning of training camp his elbow or shoulder was hurt. He was spotted limping at the UFC thing. So Tyson Fury’s the one with all the injuries,” Sugar Hill continued in talking about Fury’s injuries. “If a fighter is 100-percent — he ain’t training.”
Maybe the difference between Fury being hurt and what Wilder went through is Fury was recovered from his injuries by the time of the fight. In Wilder’s case, his leg problems occurred before he entered the ring. That obviously would be a problem. Had Fury’s cut opened up while he was walking into the ring or if both his angles broke down on him before the fight, would it have affected him?
Wilder didn’t come out firing big shots in the opening like he’d done in his previous fight with Fury, which could reinforce his assertion that his legs were weary from the costume.
Something definitely looked wrong with Wilder from the outset, but most boxing fans believe that Fury’s size and aggressive attacking style is what disrupted ‘The Bronze Bomber’ in the fight. The fans have made up their minds that Wilder was beaten by Fury’s size, pressure and boxing ability.
Fury fought a different fight this time by going straight into the teeth of Wilder’s offense and clubbing him with shots to the head and body. Unfortunately for Wilder, the arc of many of Fury’s shots wound up hitting him on the back of the head.
Assuming that Wilder doesn’t do something crazy like wearing another heavy costume during his ring walk for the third fight, we’ll be able to conclusively see if poor performance was the result of the gear he wore.
Wilder: I wasn’t hurt by Fury
“He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is that my uniform was way too heavy for me,” Wilder said to Yahoo Sports News on not being hurt by the 273-lb Fury. “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,” said Wilder.
It looked like Wilder was hurt many times in the fight, but Fury’s slow, clubbing shots weren’t powerful enough for him to finish him. Also, Wilder did a good job of covering up when he was hurt. Fury seemed to be targeting the back of Wilder’s head with shots, which made it harder for him to land each time he had him hurt.