By Charles Brun: Sparring partner Junior Fa reveals that Deontay Wilder suffered a biceps injury in the final weeks before his rematch with Tyson Fury last February.
Not surprisingly, the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) showed no power in the rematch with Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), and was unable to keep the tall 6’9” stork-like Fury honest.
Wilder only threw a token amount of right hands in the entire fight before Fury stopped him in the 7th round on February 22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Junior Fa not blaming Wilder defeat on injury
Fa doesn’t believe that Wilder’s right bicep injury is the reason for him losing the fight, but obviously, he doesn’t know. When a fighter like Wilder loses his primary weapon, it makes sense that he’s going to be a sitting duck against someone like Fury.
If the shoe was on the other foot, and Fury lost his right hand entirely, he’d have a difficult time beating a knockout artist like Deontay with just his left hand.
“I think he did hurt himself towards the end of camp, which I don’t think would have played too much into the fight, but then I don’t really know the extent of the damage of the injury that he sustained,” said Fa to skysports.com. “What I do know [is] that he did get injured.”
Wait a second. Fa says Wilder suffered a biceps injury in the last weeks of his training camp, and he doesn’t think that it would “play too much into the fight.” What on earth is Fa talking about?
Wilder suffers an injury to his bazooka right hand, and Fa doesn’t think that played into the outcome of the rematch with Fury? That’s an odd way of thinking.
If you’ve got a fighter that is partially handicapped due to an injury, it’s going play into the fight. Ask Fury to fight without one of his arms, and let’s see how well he does.
Fa surprised by Wilder’s loss
If you’re a Fury fan, then you might not buy into the news of Wilder being injured BEFORE the rematch because it takes credit from his victory. But this isn’t Wilder revealing the story of his biceps injury.
Wilder’s sparring partner Fa is the one that revealed the injury, and he doesn’t seem to be going all out to use that as an excuse for his loss. If he did, he wouldn’t be saying that he doesn’t believe the injury played a factor in the result of the fight.
Wilder has since had bicep surgery to repair the injury, but it’s unclear what the status is on the rehab. If Wilder’s surgically repaired bicep isn’t 100% still, then that would make sense for why he’s not speaking to the media. He might be having problems with his cannon-like arm. I’m just saying.
“I was very shocked [by the Wilder defeat],” Fa continued. “I was very surprised by Fury’s game plan.
“As soon as the fight started, and I saw Fury not really taking a backward step, trying to push Wilder to the ropes, I was thinking, ‘Oh man, this is going to be a hard night for Wilder,’” said Fa.
If Wilder was injured badly with his right arm, why would Fa be surprised that Fury went on the attack? Fury is a professional fighter who does this for a living. It’s very likely that Fury noticed immediately in the first round that Wilder wasn’t using his right hand in the rematch, so he understands that there was nothing to fear.
Anyone with their eyes open that night could see that Wilder wasn’t throwing right hands in the fight, and he seemed half-stunned the moment the fight started.
Deontay’s bicep surgery proves injury existed
It didn’t help that Fury was braining Wilder with rabbit punches from the opening round, and was able to get away with those shots the entire fight. Getting hit repeatedly in the back of the head isn’t good for one’s health.
What would the fight have been like if Wilder got away with hitting Fury with low blows seven to ten times per round? Would he have done well getting hit with illegal shots? The combination of the bicep injury and the rabbit punches that Wilder was getting hit with was more than enough to due him in the night.
“If Deontay was injured, he was injured if that’s what he wants people to believe,” said Johnny Nelson to IFL TV. “He thinks that’ll justify his performance. So if that’s what he wants to tell everybody.
“If that’s the story he wants to give everybody and that’s the story that he wants everyone to believe, besides the custom waiting 40-odd pounds and it tired his legs out and stuff.
“Even the line from the sparring partner; yes, he was injured, but he wasn’t sure to what extent and he was surprised how Fury jumped on him straight away, and he had him on the back foot.
Nelson not buying the Wilder’s bicep injury story
“If he had an injury, he had an injury. I’m personally not buying it, but if that’s what he wants to sell everybody, then go on. And I’m a fan of Deontay Wilder, but I’m not a fan of bull-s***.
“I’m not buying it. There’s been too many contradicting things after the fight that have been said by him, not other people. Let’s look at what he’s said and what’s come out of his mouth.
“The costume. Did that come out of his mouth? Bicep, did that come out of his mouth, or did that come out of his press agent?
“Is it fair to say that he’s using it an excuse or those around him using it as an excuse?” said Nelson on Wilder’s bicep injury. “The only thing we’ve heard out of his mouth is we know he’s used the costume that he walked into the ring with.
“We can speculate, but we can’t blame him for any bull-s*** other than the costume, because that came out of his mouth. He’s [Wilder] not learned from the first fight when he got a draw [against Fury], and he’s not learned from the second fight which he’s caught a beating,” Nelson said.
“So he’s still carrying on with this foolishness. He’s clearly not learned his lesson. Until he does that, it’ll happen again, again and again. Our ego is the biggest downfall, and his ego is obvious his biggest issue,” said Nelson.
It’s interesting that Nelson still doesn’t believe that Wilder had a biceps injury despite his sparring partner Fa revealing the information. That should be enough for Nelson to believe an injury existed.
Wilder hasn’t learned from his loss
“His ego isn’t saying, ‘Let me bring it back in check here.’ Joshua has done it, and Whyte has done it,” continued Nelson with his theory. “This just tells me that he [Wilder] hasn’t fixed nothing.
“He hasn’t come out and said, ‘I got beat, and I got outboxed, and I got beat up.’ Then he can come back and say, ‘I’m going to fix this, and fix that.’ He says, ‘Nah, my costume was too heavy,’” said Nelson on Wilder.
Well, there’s obviously nothing for Wilder to learn from defeat if a bicep injury caused it, right? The real lesson to be remembered for Wilder is next time, don’t take a fight when you suffer a bad injury in camp.
In a situation like that, it’s far better to postpone the fight rather than to into it at 50%, and then end up having your reputation tarnished from the defeat. As we can see, boxing fans now view Wilder as never being a quality heavyweight from day one, even though he held the WBC title from 2015 to 2020.
Nelson has an entrenched opinion on the Fury vs. Wilder 2 fight, and he’s not going to change his views no matter what new details are brought in.
Is the story about Wilder having bicep surgery bogus too? Nelson sounds like he had his mind made up the moment Fury won last February that he beat Wilder at 100%, and now that new information, he’s not going to change his original point of view.