Wilder says he will retire if he loses
Deontay Wilder is mad as hell and wants the world to know this: If he loses his WBC heavyweight belt to Bermane Stiverne on Saturday night at Barclays Center in New York, he will retire from boxing. The undefeated champion will quit the sport that has taken him from Olympic medalist to the pinnacle of the sweet science’s most glamorous division.
Boxers threaten to retire all the time. But Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) says he will quit the sport he once loved because he’s tired of dealing with opponents who feel the need to ingest performance-enhancing substances before stepping into the ring with him.
“The way I’m feeling about boxing right now, if Bermane Stiverne beats me, I will retire. You can put that down. I will be out of the way,” Wilder said during a recent conference call. “Boxing ain’t got to worry about me no more because it ain’t really doing no good anyway. Nobody wants to fight. All I wanted to do was prove that I am the best. The best don’t want to fight, so what’s the point of me being in this sport? If Bermane beats me ... I’m done. I’m done.”
Three consecutive opponents — Russia’s Alexander Povetkin, Poland’s Andrzej Wawrzyk and Cuba’s Luis Ortiz — never made it into the ring with Wilder. All three failed drug tests leading into their scheduled bouts. And Stiverne failed a random drug test a year ago before his fight against Povetkin, who again failed a test before that fight, which was canceled.
Wilder, “The Bronze Bomber” from Tuscaloosa, Ala., who appears fully recovered from a broken right hand and torn right biceps muscle in 2016, was supposed to fight Ortiz on Saturday in a highly anticipated matchup. That was before the unbeaten Cuban tested positive for two banned substances.
Wilder has been criticized for handpicking his opponents, but Povetkin and Ortiz are A-list fighters who, unfortunately for Wilder, were caught trying to gain an edge the illegal way.
“This is just another obstacle that I had to deal with,” Wilder said. “I put so much into it. Ortiz had been wanting it; he wanted this fight to happen. I never thought in a million years that he would do what he did. No matter what they say, it was done; it was a banned substance. You can’t get around that.”
So now he will rematch Stiverne
(25-2-1, 21 KOs), the mandatory challenger who has not fought in two years. Stiverne, 39, took Wilder the distance nearly three years ago, but Wilder took the WBC belt from the Haitian who now lives and trains in Las Vegas. Saturday’s fight (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET) will be Wilder’s sixth defense of that title. During that span, Stiverne fought once, a close decision against journeyman Derric Rossy.
But Stiverne has obsessed since their first fight about getting a rematch with Wilder. He says he was sick that night and things will be different this time. Wilder, on the other hand, claims he will finish the job Saturday.
“The matter between he and I is very personal,” Stiverne said. “He took my title away from me. This is something I need back, but it’s so much more than that. I’ll make him feel my pain.”
What the 32-year-old Wilder really wants is to fight England’s Anthony Joshua, the undefeated WBA and IBF titlist, for the unified heavyweight championship. Last weekend, Joshua stopped Carlos Takam before 78,000 fans in Wales to run his record to 20-0
(20 KOs). But Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, wants Wilder to first fight another Brit, Dillian Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs).
“The ultimate goal is to get Joshua,” Wilder said. “Joshua says he needs more time; he ain’t ready. He wants to put himself in a better position. As soon as Anthony Joshua accepts the fight, I’ll be there.
“They’re trying to distract people because they know I’m a danger to anybody’s career. All their excuses have nothing to do with the sport of boxing. The only thing people care about is the best fighting the best, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”