I’VE GOT THIS CRAZY KILLER INSTINCT
NOT many of Tuscaloosa’s inhabitants seem fully aware of the champion in their midst. Not that Deontay Wilder would have it any other way.
The 6ft 7in heavyweight admits that America’s love affairs with baseball, football and basketball overshadow his achievements.
Yet even though recognition of his 40 victories would have come more readily had he moved his base to, say, Las Vegas or New York, this is where the WBC champion prefers to hold court.
In a corrugated shed. In the quiet solitude of the woods on the outskirts of his home town.
The Bronze Bomber, as the 33-year-old styles himself, was in the final day of training camp before heading down to Los Angeles where he will defend his title against Tyson Fury next Saturday night.
It was to the other side of the Black Warrior River in 1963 that President Kennedy despatched the National Guard to force the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, to stand aside and permit the admission of two African-American students to the state University.
Wilder ponders a question on racial prejudice in the Deep South and says: ‘There is a lot of history here. I feel I’ve been talking about this since the beginning of time. We’ve had 400 years of this stuff and, yes, it’s still going on.
‘The thing about being black is that people fear you because of what has happened in history. Other people don’t understand what it’s like to be looked upon because of your colour.
‘Yet black people just want to have the same good life, to provide for their families like everyone else and be happy. But to say this is like beating an animal with a stick.
‘When someone like me is outspoken on this it counts against me with people who don’t know what it’s like to have this done to them.
‘I’m a different person outside the ropes,’ he says. ‘Tuscaloosa keeps me calm and collected. I didn’t have to leave here to become the world heavyweight champion. The best heavyweight in the world.
‘I didn’t have to leave my home and my team and my people to be the Baddest Man on the Planet. I’m the guy from little Tuscaloosa who is beating up the big wide world. I keep knocking out the guys who have gone looking for the big-name trainers in the big cities.
‘I am tranquil here but come the fight I go through a transformation. It’s a source of power, it’s scary. My mind transforms.
‘Everything irritates me. I’m no longer myself. That’s why I can unleash all the power, all the energy. It gives me a crazy killer instinct.
‘The mask (he is about to unveil a new gold one) keeps me shut away from the world for those moments with no distraction.
‘People have a problem with me for saying I might kill a man in the ring but that’s because I know my punches can do so much harm that people should go have their heads checked after they fight me.’
If there is an optimistic omen for Fury in the history of this corner of America it might be found in the clause in the contract for next Saturday in the Staples Center which provides for a second fight even if he loses, as long as the first is close and exciting. You never know with rematches.
M Wilder v Fury will be televised live on BT Sports Box Office late next Saturday night, December 1.