By Charles Brun: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum reacted predictably in lashing out at former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in response to him posting on social media that he felt that Tyson Fury should keep his word and fight him.
Instead of focusing on what Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) said about Fury choosing not to give him a trilogy fight and steering towards a soft fight against 39-year-old Carlos Takam, Arum targeted his anger at Deontay’s comment about Fury’s gloves.
Wilder feels that there was something in those gloves that led to him losing by a seventh-round knockout earlier this year on February 22 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wilder states that he was left with an egg-shaped dent on the left side of his head, as well as a torn earn, which he believes came from something that the ‘Gypsy King’ Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) had in his gloves on the night.
Arum reacts to Wilder’s social media post
“We haven’t heard anything from Wilder, then apparently he’s been watching TV, and he’s now mimicking Trump,” Arum said. “It’s impossible for anything to happen to the gloves, this is bulls***.
“And for Wilder to castigate the ref Kenny Bayless, who saved his life, and trainer Mark Breland, who also saved his life, is absolutely disgraceful.”
Well, let’s look at this from Wilder’s perspective. If you look at the video of Fury’s gloves with the way that they were bending during the fight, it does look odd to the extreme.
It almost appeared that Fury’s hand slipped out of the gloves, and he was hitting the 6’7″ Deontay with an empty portion of the front of his gloves. If you’re Wilder and you see that, of course, you’re going to be highly suspicious about it, especially if your skull is dented in, as Deontay says it was.
Deontay being upset at the trainer is understandable
As for Wilder being upset with his trainer Mark Breland stopping the fight, he’s entitled to be angry about that. If you know anything about Deontay’s philosophy about his fights, you’ll know that he believes in going out on his shield like a warrior.
Breland meant to protect Deontay in halting the fight in the seventh round last February, but he was still fighting back and looking to land that homerun right hand when the fight was stopped. You can’t blame Wilder for being deeply upset about the contest being halted because he was setting Fury up for a big shot.
If it’s true that Wilder told his training team never to stop one of his fights, it makes sense for him to part ways with Breland. Assuming that Breland knew how Wilder felt about wanting to go out on his shield, he asked for trouble when he threw in the towel.
“It’s ridiculous. Listen, park him to the side, let the big boys, the real men go at it,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said to IFL TV of Wilder.“Unless you’ve got any real substance then be quiet, go back to the drawing board, work harder, let the hunger burn to become champion again.
“It’s gone from the costume to now he’s been found out about AJ, to now something about the gloves. It’s getting worse and worse.”
Wilder does have a good argument about Fury choosing not to give him his third fight as part of the contract. Why wouldn’t Wilder be upset at Fury moving on to face a lesser opponent?
If the idea behind Fury choosing to move on is to make sure he doesn’t lose to Deontay so that he can guarantee his big payday against Anthony Joshua in early 2021, of course, it’s going to upset the Bronze Bomber.
