Ahead of his third encounter against Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), WBC heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) says his opponent is mentally weak after the press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The two had previously clashed on 22nd February last year at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada, where Tyson Fury thrashed Deontay Wilder to a 7th round win as well as handing the former WBC titleholder his first career defeat.
Fresh off the defeat, Wilder claimed that his water was ‘spiked’ and even accused Fury of cheating, while he as pushing for a rematch against the Gypsy King, who, on the other hand, was not initially interested in a trilogy and focused more on an undisputed title fight against Anthony Joshua.
However, after Wilder won his arbitration case against Fury regarding their trilogy and as per the two fight deal the two boxers mutually agreed on their first clash in 2018, Fury will have to fight Wilder prior to facing anyone else, including Joshua, and will head for the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on 24th July to face the “Bronze Bomber”.
Tyson Fury says he was “worried about Deontay Wilder” after beating him last year
More than a month prior to the fight, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder met at a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday. While Fury was in his natural, outspoken persona, the same wasn’t seen from Wilder, who avoided answering questions and even didn’t yell his signature “Bomb Squad” as he used to do in every pre-fight conference in the past.
The former champion, who was donning Beats by Dre headphones throughout the conference, even revealed to Top Rank Boxing commentator and host Crystina Poncher that he was more focused on ‘putting in work’ rather than ‘talking’.
“I asked him about answering questions,” Poncher spoke to Wilder’s new trainer Malik Scott after the conference, “he said, ‘The talking is done. It’s just time to do business and to put in work.’ ”
ALSO READ: Deontay Wilder lauds trainer Malik Scott ahead of Tyson Fury rematch on July 24
Fury, observing his rival’s behavior at the press conference, concluded that Wilder is not a strong person mentally and the loss last year has put an impact on him.
“It shows how weak of a mental person he is and how much of the beatin’ from the last fight has took an emotional, physical effect on his life,” said Fury, “I was worried about Deontay Wilder for quite a while, um, after the defeat that I gave him.”
“And obviously he’s doing his little thing with his earphones on, and doesn’t wanna answer any questions. That’s up to him, but I’m here to promote a fight and talk to the press, the way I always do.”
So, if Deontay Wilder doesn’t wanna commit to this press conference, let’s me take Deontay Wilder’s part. So, I’ll play double character, if you want. Yeah, I’m quite good at doing these role-playing stuff. So, I’ll be Deontay Wilder and I’ll be Tyson Fury, and we’ll play a little game,” the Briton added. (H/T BoxingScene)
