Wilder blames costume, seeks rematch with Fury
LAS VEGAS: Deontay Wilder plans to activate his rematch clause for a third fight with Tyson Fury after his seventh-round TKO loss to the Briton, US media reported.
Yahoo Sports reported Wilder would seek a rematch — and that he claimed a miscalculation with his ring-walk costume proved costly in the first defeat of his career.
Wilder told Yahoo Sports the embossed armour-like costume, complete with a full face mask, weighed 40 pounds (18kg), and by the time he’d made his way to the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas his legs were compromised.
Britain’s Fury knocked Wilder down in the third round with a straight right hand and the American, who lost his WBC heavyweight belt, never looked really steady after that.
Wilder went down again in the third in what was ruled a slip, and Fury knocked him down with a punch to the body in the fifth.
Certainly Wilder didn’t have the foundation to throw his right with its usual fearsome power. “The simple fact is that my uniform was way too heavy for me,” Wilder said. “I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight.”
While a rubber match is a tantalising prospect, so is the idea of an all-British heavyweight unification bout between Fury and Anthony Joshua, who holds the WBA, IBF and WBO titles after winning his rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr last year. Meanwhile, Fury has been invited to the White House and to the Vatican, his promoter Frank Warren said.