Deontay Wilder was dominated by heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, February 22, but he will be exercising his rematch close to close out the trilogy with “The Gypsy King.”
He will also have to work on strengthening those legs after an interesting excuse while discussing what went wrong during an interview with Lance Pugmire of The Athletic.
While discussing the fight, Wilder claimed that part of what went wrong involved his walkout costume. Wilder says that the outfit weighed more than 40-pounds and his legs were already weakened by the time he entered the ring for his main event bout.
“Deontay Wilder tells me he is definitely exercising his rematch clause for a summer trilogy against Tyson Fury, that his legs were weakened by his 45-pound costume he wore to the ring to honor Black History Month,” Pugmire wrote on Twitter.
Full story coming to @TheAthleticBOX shortly: Deontay Wilder @BronzeBomber tells me he is definitely exercising his rematch clause for a summer trilogy against @Tyson_Fury, that his legs were weakened by his 45-pound costume he wore to the ring to honor Black History Month.
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) February 24, 2020
According to TMZ Sports, Fury dropped $40,000 on his epic entrance costume.
“When I got to a certain point into my career, I said, ‘I wanna give the boxing fans, I wanna give the world something that they can remember me by.’ Not only just the knockouts, but me expressing myself before coming out and entering into the ring,” Wilder said.
“Spending money on these costumes and stuff, whether it’s [$10K to $40K], I know they’re going to turn to millions. It’s gonna be 10 million, 40 million, after I get finished, because of the things I’ve done in boxing and the way I was able to do it in.”
While the walkout outfits are certainly entertaining and eye-catching, doing anything to damper your ability before entering the ring for a title fight seems counterproductive.
We’ll have to see if Wilder ditches the elaborate looks for his trilogy fight with Fury or whether he will continue to bring the theatrics.