By Allan Fox: David Haye in on the side of trainer Mark Breland in believing that he did the right thing in throwing in the towel to save former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in the 7th round in his loss to Tyson Fury on February 22. Haye says that no one wants to see Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) die inside the ring, least of all his trainer.
Wilder says he didn’t want the fight to be stopped, and that he’d rather have gone out on his shield like a warrior. Haye disagrees with that view. He notes that Wilder hired Breland to look out for him inside the ring, so he did what he felt was best to save him when he was getting battered by Fury.
Haye says he’d like to see Wilder lose some of the muscle weight that he packed on for the rematch with Fury. He doesn’t believe the extra weight that Wilder packed on helped him in any way.
Haye: Nobody wants Wilder to die
“Every time when I got stopped when the towel came in, I thought I had more,” Haye said to Behind The Gloves on Wilder’s loss to Fury. “I was like, ‘No, don’t stop it.’ Sometimes you need someone to save you from yourself. You hire a coach for his expertise and if he generally loves you and cares for you and wants the best for you, not just in this fight, but in the remainder of your life, what kind of coach is willing to let his fighter die in there knowing that he’s got a wife and kids.
“That’s why he needs a coach to stop it because nobody wants Deontay Wilder to die. Tyson Fury doesn’t. Nobody wants that. It’s a terrible thing to happen and we don’t want that in boxing. So sometimes we need fighters to be saved from themselves. I understand how Deontay Wilder felt. I felt the same way a few times. But you’ve got to look back and rewatch the fight, and obviously he made the decision straight away before he had time to analyze it,” said Haye.
The huge weight difference was significant. The 273-lb Fury was 42 lbs heavier than Wilder, and he was too big. Wilder looked too thin to hold Fury off of him, and he had no answers.
Wilder looked done by the second round against Fury, and everything after that round was a downward spiral. You could see after the second round that Wilder was going to get stopped, but you just didn’t know when.
Deontay will be better in the third fight with Fury
“Watch it in slow motion and tell me whether you think the fight should have been stopped or not,” Haye said of Wilder’s stoppage in the 7th. “Once you become a heavyweight champion of the world, it gives you this aura of invincibility. You think no matter what happens, you’re going to find a way to win, and sometimes it doesn’t happen. He just found that out. Maybe his training didn’t go great.
“There are a million different things that could have happened. But we’ll see the best version of him I’m sure the next time out. If that’s significantly better than this time, is Fury going to raise it up again? We don’t know. That’s why it’s intriguing. But on the strength of that last fight, I’ve got to go with Tyson Fury in the third fight,” said Haye.
We’ll see in the third fight if Wilder has improved enough to beat Fury. The two will be fighting no later than July 18, and if Fury dominates early, there’s a good chance he’ll win again. Wilder’s best shot at winning is to get to Fury early in the fight before he starts wearing him down with his size.
Wilder knows why he lostÂ
“Deep down in his heart he knows what happened in training camp. He knows why he lost,” said Haye to Behind The Gloves on Wilder’s loss to Fury. “He took some stick after the fight when someone stuck a MIC in his face after he’d just been battered with blood running out of his ear.
“So whatever he says after the fight, it’s hard to take it with a pinch of salt. But he knows deep down why. Every fighter knows in their heart of heart why they didn’t perform. Whether it was Fury was too good for him. It didn’t seem like that because afterward, he wanted the rematch.
“If he felt someone was significantly better and he could in no way win it, he wouldn’t take the rematch. But obviously he knows there’s more to come. He knows there’s more in him. So the next fight is going to be just as big, maybe even bigger. But I can’t see how Wilder [wins] other than landing a big shot, but still if he landed that big shot,” said Haye on Wilder.
By now, Wilder has seen his fight with Fury many times and dissected what went wrong. If he doesn’t know why he lost the fight by this point, then he never will. Wilder’s decision to blame the loss on his heavy ring walk uniform was a bad idea.
Haye: Wilder needs to get down to a healthy weight
“Maybe if he comes back down in weight to his healthy weight,” Haye said about Wilder making a mistake in bulking up. “Putting on 16, 17 pounds of muscle didn’t look like it helped him. So maybe going back to what he used to do. I don’t know. Deontay Wilder has kept his cards close to his chest.
“Let everyone say what they’re going to say. After a fight when you lose, you get stick, but the third fight is going to be massive. I’m going to be ringside again. The winner of that fight, and the winner of Joshua, if he has the titles or if he doesn’t…The fact that we’re getting the biggest guys fighting the best guys all the time now, it’s really nice.
“It’s a strange time in heavyweight boxing where we’re getting to see the fights we always wanted. Look at Povetkin and Dillian Whyte. What a great fight. These fights never used to happen like that. We’re getting them. Usyk against Chisora. We’re getting the best fighting the best. Whoever wins between Chisora and Usyk fights AJ.
“It’s just a great time in the heavyweight division, and the best era in many, many years. The fans are generally getting what they want a lot of the time. Every year we’re getting 2 or 3 mega-fights,” said Haye.
It would be a good idea for Wilder to get back down to 212 lbs for the third fight with Fury. That’s how much Wilder weighed for his first fight with Fury, and he was more than strong enough for him to compete.