Deontay Wilder willing to meet with George Foreman to talk

Image: Deontay Wilder willing to meet with George Foreman to talk
By Boxing News - 03/06/2020 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Deontay Wilder is reportedly willing to meet with former heavyweight champion George Foreman to talk about his ideas on training, according to Thaboxingvoice. Foreman invited Wilder to come spend 2-4 weeks with him following his 7th round knockout loss to Tyson Fury last month on February 22.

While the invitation that Wilder is said to have accepted isn’t necessarily a sign that he’ll now be trained by big George, it’s possible that we could see him as a possible mentor or even as a part-time coach for him.

Can Foreman help Wilder defeat Fury?

It’s unclear whether the 1968 Olympic gold medalist Foreman (76-5, 68 KOs) would have the time or the inclination to take over as a full-time coach for former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs). But whatever time that Foreman could put into helping Wilder could be enough for him to defeat Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) in their rematch on July 18.

There would a lot of skepticism with boxing fans on whether Foreman can make the difference as a part-time trainer or a full-time coach with Wilder. What Foreman has going against him is he’s never been a trainer, so he doesn’t have the track record of success.

Although Foreman won an Olympic gold medal, he had a brief amateur career of just 26 fights. He’s not someone like Vasiliy Lomachenko, who had 400 fights as an amateur. As a pro, Foreman captured world titles, but then lost them.

Wilder and Foreman both have something in common in that they were beaten by slick boxers during their careers. Foreman lost to Muhammad Ali by an 8th round knockout in October 1974, and then later to Jimmy Young by a 12 round decision in March 1977. In leading up to both fights, it was thought that Foreman would destroy Ali and Young, but he ended up getting beaten after getting outboxed.

Will Wilder dump his training team?

Wilder is currently still being trained by Mark Breland and Jay Deas, both of which have been with him for a long time. If Wilder choose to add Foreman to his training staff, would he get in the way of Breland and Deas? As the saying goes, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth.’ It might be too much for Wilder to have three different voices to try and fix the flaws in his game that Fury exposed.

It’s unlikely that Wilder will want to fire Breland and Deas and go with Foreman full-time, but you never know. At this point, Wilder’s career could be on the rockets should he lose his July rematch with Fury. If there was ever a time for Wilder to make a clean sweep of his training team, now would be the time to do it. If Wilder waits until after he faces Fury in July, it might be too late

These are areas that Foreman can potentially help Wilder with:

  • Improve his jab
  • Teach Wilder how to throw an uppercut
  • Get Wilder to lose weight to get back down to 212 to 2019: Wilder gassed out against Fury in their rematch, and that enabled the 270+ lb, British heavyweight, to bull him around. For that fight, Wilder bulked up to 231 lbs, and the extra weight appeared to tire him out. It obviously didn’t help that Fury was getting away with him Wilder in the back of the head the entire fight.
  • Discuss ring tactics. Foreman would teach Wilder to stay off the ropes, and watch out for Fury’s rabbit punches.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently said that he could help Wilder. He would be another great coach, and he might be someone Wilder meets with to get some pointers. Having Mayweather as one of Wilder’s coaches would be a huge position, as long as he’s willing to listen to him.

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