Deontay Wilder insists that “This is not the end” of his career following his disappointing non-competitive twelve round unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Joseph Parker on Saturday night in their chief-support bout on ESON+ PPV & DAZN PPV in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Wilder’s powerful fists went silent against the former WBO heavyweight champion Parker (34-3, 23 KOs), as he couldn’t get off, and he’s not sure why.
Deontay didn’t have an explanation for why he couldn’t throw his shots, but it looked like he was afraid of being caught by a countershot from Parker, who has good power.
Age Concerns Loom Large:
The former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) says he just couldn’t let his hands go, and that’s an understatement. After six rounds, the 38-year-old Deontay had only thrown a pitiful 16 punches, making some wonder whether he was injured, ring-rusty, or just old.
Heavyweights from the past, like Muhammad Ali & Larry Holmes, were past it by the time they were Wilder’s age at 38, so it’s reasonable to assume that tonight’s performance was a result of that more than ring-rust. If Parker were 38, he’d have similar problems as Wilder did tonight.
The only heavyweight in the top ten that is still fighting at a high level at Wilder’s age is ‘Big Bang’ Zhilei Zhang, but he’s a different kind of guy. He has size, power, chin, courageous and he stays active in his career. He’s everything that Wilder isn’t.
The scores were 118-111, 120-108 and 118-110.
Wilder didn’t say which direction he’d go for his next fight, but he can forget about the lucrative two-fight deal with Anthony Joshua with the Saudis. That’s no longer happening, but the door isn’t completely shut. If Wilder can come back quickly with a couple of solid wins, he’s got a chance of still fighting Joshua.
Wilder hasn’t shown much interest in keeping active with his career in the last couple of years, and it’s probable that he’ll continue to sit on the sidelines unless the Saudis offer him big money to fight someone, and that would seem unlikely.
It’s more likely that the only way Wilder can fight again is for less money against someone decent like Frank Sanchez or Andy Ruiz Jr., which would be very risky for him. Those guys would likely beat Parker, but those are the type of wins Deontay needs if he wants to fight Joshua.
“We came up short tonight. I don’t know what happened, to be honest,” said Deontay Wilder on social media, talking about his loss to Joseph Parker on Saturday night in Riyadh.
“I didn’t throw my punches, and I didn’t let my hands go like I was supposed to. Sometimes, it gets like that, but you live to see another fight. You live to see another moment. That’s all that matters.”
Uncertain future
“I’m still full of happiness. I’m still full of joy. I’m sorry if I let anyone down, but we’ll be back. That’s the good thing about it. This is not the end. We’ll be back,” said Wilder.
If Wilder is going to come back from this loss to get the fight he wants against Joshua, he’s going to need to do the following:
1. Stay active, fighting two or preferably three times per year.
2. Fight quality opposition
3. Put on a little weight to get to 220 region
4. Let his hands go: Don’t move
5. Use pressure: stop running
6. Change trainers: Dump Malik Scott and get a new coach like Ben Davison
“I think he’s still a good fighter, a dangerous fighter, but he just looked lost in there tonight. He didn’t have a clue what to do,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing King Media when asked about his thoughts on Deontay Wilder’s loss to Joseph Parker.
“Even when he’d lost virtually every round, he wasn’t even trying to win the fight,” Hearn continued about Wilder. “Even when the referee was announcing the decision, he was putting his hands up like he’d won the fight. I don’t know. Activity is a killer.”
Hearn is happy right now, but his fighter Anthony Joshua could easily be in the same boat as Wilder if he’d matched him against a halfway decent heavyweight instead of fixing him up against an easy mark, Otto Wallin.
It’s easy for Hearn to talk down on Wilder as if he knows better, but his fighter Joshua would likely lose to many of the top fighters if he didn’t match him carefully for the third consecutive fight.
Hearn has been propping Joshua up by feeding him these soft jobs: Wallin, Robert Helenius, and Jermaine Frankin.
Hearn’s advice
Even when Joshua lost to Oleksandr Usyk and Andy Ruiz Jr., those were originally designed as cherry picks like Wallin, Franklin, and Helenius, but AJ wasn’t good enough to win. Joshua is a good fringe-level heavyweight, but he’s not much better than Wilder. They’re both old & badly flawed guys.
“This is a message to fighters. Don’t just sit there, waiting and waiting and waiting for chances and activity. You’ve got to stay active, and that cost him tonight as well. We [Anthony Joshua] were committed to fighting Wilder in March. We’ll see what’s next,” Hearn said.
