By Craig Daly: A very slender-looking Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder is training with Michael Hunter for his next fight against a still-to-be-determined opponent.
On Wednesday, Hunter posted a photo of him and the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) on his social media site.
The 6’7″ Wilder looks considerably atrophied with the bulky muscles that he’d had for his trilogy fight against Tyson Fury last October, having melted away from disuse.
It’s unclear whether Wilder intends on fighting at a lighter weight when he returns to the ring or if he’ll elect to bulk up to the 230s again, despite his lack of success in carrying around the extra size on his naturally lean frame.
Wilder weighed 238 lbs for his last fight against Fury, and he looked slower & gassed out after four rounds.
— Michael Hunter ll (@MichaelHunterII) August 3, 2022
For Wilder’s second fight against Fury, he bulked up to 231 lbs from the 212 lbs that he’d weighed for his first match against the big 6’9″ Brit. In that fight, too, Wilder looked tired & lethargic.
Surprisingly, Wilder’s new trainer Malik Scott wasn’t astute enough to see that his performance drops when he fights in the 230s.
Malik should have seen for himself by watching how Wilder performed against Fury in their second fight and when he fought at 229 lbs against Eric Molina to see that he’s incapable of carrying that kind of weight on his spindly legs.
There are many options available to Wilder for his next fight, and one of them is a silly offer made by Eddie Hearn for him to fight the painfully shot 38-year-old journeyman Derek Chisora.
For Wilder to accept Hearn’s offer to fight Chisora, would lead to him taking unceasing criticism from the boxing public because they feel that Deontay should at least focus on fighting a contender when he returns to the ring.
Wilder is in a position where he can sit back and wait to fight the winner of the September 4th fight between Andy Ruiz Jr and Luis Ortiz. Of course, that wouldn’t be an ideal fight to take for the 36-year-old Wilder coming off a long layoff and back-to-back losses against Fury.
