Wilder Won’t Retire – Says Shirley Finkel
Deontay Wilder won’t be walking away from boxing following his loss to Joseph Parker.
Wilder was on course to face Anthony Joshua after they had signed a two-fight deal. This was on the condition both fighters won their next fights. Joshua impressively beat Otto Wallin, stopping him in five rounds. Wilder could not do the same, as he was dominated in a one-sided unanimous decision loss. The defeat raised serious questions about his future, particularly given the nature of his performance.
Wilder’s right hand went missing in the fight as the Bronze Bomber was gun-shy. He had only had one fight in over a year, a first-round KO win over Robert Helenius, showing that he was not the most active of fighters. That was after Tyson Fury had stopped him in two consecutive fights. At the age of 38, there were concerns that he was no longer the same fighter, as Wilder’s comments suggested he was not too upset about the defeat.
Wilder’s Future
“We came up short tonight, I don’t know what happened to be honest. My timing was off, I didn’t throw my punches, I didn’t let my hands go like I’m supposed to. “Sometimes you get like that, but you live to see another fight, you live to see another moment,” Wilder said
Since those comments, Wilder’s manager Shirley Finkel has now reassured fans that they will see the Bronze Bomber again.
“Deontay will fight again and has no plans to retire. He will fight again, but we have no specific fight yet and are looking at what’s next. At present, there are no plans for him to go to either Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk or AJ vs Francis Ngannou, but you never know that could change in the future,” Finkel stated
Wilder’s Next Fight
This naturally begs the question: where does Wilder go next? He does have possible fights against Joe Joyce, Zhilei Zhang and Filip Hrgovic. All three are well-known heavyweights, even if they are not world champions.
An impressive run of wins against them places Wilder in a good place to secure the Parker rematch and get a world title fight. If he does that, Wilder may have one more shot at getting another world title. But based on the current crop of heavyweights, Wilder is lower down the pecking order. But Turki Alalshikh’s comments show there is a desire to him back again.
“The people need to see Fury versus Joshua, Joshua versus Wilder – I mean, I hope Wilder comes back. The fight between Joshua and Wilder [was signed]. But you see the result [Parker beating Wilder] and the body of condition of Wilder now, so it would not be reasonable to have that fight now. We want him to come back,” Turki Alalshikh stated
Ultimately, it is a question of whether Wilder can recapture that form that made him once an avoided fighter. Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com.
