Deontay Wilder the Bronze Bomber former Olympic bronze medallist and WBC world champion has recently been on a downward spiral. Renowned as a knockout artist Wilder was known for his incredible one punch knockout power in his right hand. Although, very technically limited Wilder always had the right hand to bail him out and the ferocity to fight to the last breathe. However, the time has come where that ferocity and ability to land the right hand has been failing him. And with the end near it’s time to look back on the career of the Bronze Bomber.
Deontay Wilder Early Career
Wilder started boxing at age 20 training in Skyy Boxing Gym in his home state of Alabama. 20 is very late to start training for boxing career and for Wilder it really shows. Due to starting so late Wilder never really had the time to get the fundamentals right. And instead of focusing on that his trainer from early on focused on the one thing he did have, power.
Wilder had a short amateur career having only 30 fights 24 wins and 6 losses. In that time despite his technical flaws he managed to achieve quite well. In fact Wilder managed to make it to the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing and managed to secure himself a Bronze medal. This led to his nickname the Bronze Bomber referencing his medal and the freakish power possessed by Wilder. After the games Wilder made the decision to go pro and around this time Mark Breland was brought on as a trainer.
Wilder’s early career in the pros like most decent heavyweights consisted of knocking over cans and slowly building him up. Wilder from early on was signed and snatched up by PBC Al Haymons promotion. Wilder never fought anyone with a pulse into running in Audley Harrison a Brit who won gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Harrison in the pros was a bit of a let down and retired after this fight but a win over an Olympian is impressive. Not long after in 2014 Wilder fought and knocked out his current trainer Malik Scott in the first round
Wilder’s Championship Career
Wilder would get his first title shot at the WBC world title on the 17th January 2015 against Bermaine Stiverne. It’s a miracle that Stiverne ever got his hands on a world title. But, following the retirement of Vitali Klitschko the WBC title was vacated and Stiverne won the vacant title against Chris Areola. Interestingly, Stiverne was the first man to take Wilder to a decision in the pros. Despite Wilder being the clear winner this was one of the warning signs of Wilder’s limitations.
Wilder would then make defences against weak opposition from 2015-2018 knocking them all out. It should be noted that Wilder won his title whilst Wladmir Klitschko was still unified champion with the rest of the belts. So undisputed could have been made and Wladmir was certainly willing also starting the trend of Wilder being a hurdle for undisputed. When asked about fighting Wladmir Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkle in an interview with Tuscaloosa News said, “Look, (Wilder) is a baby winning the title. It was his first title fight, they’ll be a time for unification, they’ll be a time for all those things”. Interestingly Wilder had 33 fights at that time post beating Stiverne.
So Wilder spent a few years beating weak opposition such as Molina, Spzilka, Arreola, Washington, Stiverne again and Ortiz. In that time period Ortiz was the best opposition he had faced but was very old. Also during this time attempts were by by Eddie Hearn and the Joshua camp to make the undisputed fight. Particularly prior to Joshua fighting Povetkin attempts were made by team Joshua to make the fight. However they ran out of time due to the WBA enforcing their mandatory so Joshua had to stop negotiations or be stripped.
Ducking Dillian Whyte
something that doesn’t often get brought up enough is Wilder and the WBC’s blatant disregard for mandatory challengers. In this case Dillian Whyte was Wilder’s mandatory for no joke for 3 years. Whyte became Wilder’s mandatory challenger in 2019 after defeating Oscar Rivas by unamious decision. And never once did Wilder utter Dillian’s name and never once did the WBC force Wilder to fight Whyte.
The thing that is most frustrating about this is that Whyte was a very winnable match up for Wilder. In fact most people would pick Wilder over Whyte but give Whyte a decent chance. So avoiding him is just so random given he is very beatable and a good name for Wilders poor resume.
There is some blame on Dillian for just relentlessly pursuing Wilder rather than trying to become mandatory for other belts. However, a belt organisation should enforce their mandatories. Eventually Whyte would get his shot after Fury vs Wilder 3 in 2022 where was outboxed and knocked out by Fury in the 6th round.
The Wilder And Fury Meet
Wilder then ran into the best fighter he’d ever face Tyson Fury for the first time in 2018. Now today fighting Tyson Fury would be acceptable and praise worthy being a top 3 heavyweight but context is important. At this time Fury had only recently comeback from a 2 year bender of abusing his body with alcohol, drugs, and gaining a massive amount of weight. Fury had twice since his return against nobodies and not looked particularly good. So Fury at this point was a cherry pick.
However, this cherry pick backfired spectacularly. Wilder was baffled by Fury in the build up to this fight by Fury’s confidence and trash talk riling up Wilder. This can be seen in all their press conferences. And the fight itself saw Wilder absolutely bamboozled by Fury’s awkward style being completely outboxed. Wilder scored 2 knockdowns once in round 9 and again round 12. How Fury got up from the round 12 knockdown we’ll never know but he got up and Wilder’s face dropped. Fury got up and proceeded to put it on Wilder. The fight was ruled a draw however most felt Fury was robbed and pressured for a rematch.
After the fight Wilder secured 2 more defences knocking out Breazeale and Ortiz in a rematch. Again during this time Joshua tried to make undisputed with Wilder being offered a massive deal by DAZN but it was turned down. Then the 2nd Fury fight came in 2020 and again saw Wilder bamboozled at Fury’s insistence he would KO him. But, fiction became reality with Fury utilising the kronk style to pressure Wilder and wear him down in the clinch battering Wilder for 7 rounds. Eventually Wilder’s trainer Mark Breland threw in the towel and Wilder received his first official loss.
Excuses And A Needless Trilogy
The aftermath of the Fury rematch was disastrous for Wilder’s reputation and career. The most sad part being the horrific treatment of Wilder’s trainer Mark Breland. Breland was fired by Wilder accused of being a team Fury spy and spiking Wilder’s water. All of which is absolutely absurd Breland was Wilders trainer for many years and threw in the towel out of love for Deontay and not seeing a way his fighter could win. And in return he gets lambasted by Wilder and his team.
Deontay Wilder accused Fury of cheating claiming Fury had loaded gloves a nonsensical claim. Wilder’s “evidence” was that Fury hit harder and that his gloves looked weird. This can be easily debunked by the fact this time Fury actually sat on his shots. Fury also put some weight back on for this fight to help with power. And the gloves situation the reason Fury’s gloves looked weird is he typically uses gloves filled with horse hair.
After this an attempt was made by team Joshua to make undisputed with the newly crowned champion Tyson Fury. The fight was all but made however as part of the contract for the rematch Wilder was able to activate a rematch. An arbitration was held and ruled in Wilders favour and again undisputed was held up by Deontay Wilder. For the trilogy Wilder acquired a new trainer Malik Scott.
Deontay Wilder put up a brave effort in the trilogy dropping Fury multiple times however was eventually knocked out in round 11. This and the Fury rematch are the fights that really the fights that saw major decline for Wilder. In those fights Wilder took a massive amount of damage. The trilogy also saw the beginning of large bouts of inactivity for Wilder.
Post Fury Career
Following the Fury trilogy Wilder was out of the ring for more than a year returning against Helenus in 2022. Many speculated how Wilder was going to look after the beatings Fury gave him and the impact of inactivity. And this fight didn’t really tell us much. Wilder was back down to his optimum weight in the 210s and quicky took care of business with a round 1 KO. This didn’t tell us much except that Fury could still hit like a truck and land his right hand in some capacity.
Following the win there were rumours of an Andy Ruiz fight. This fight was very intriguing as besides Fury Wilder hadn’t fought much if any elite competition. However, this never materialised with Ruiz allegedly asking for too much money. Then in 2023 we saw his excellency Turki Alalshikh bring in Wilder to Saudi to fight against Joseph Parker. The plan was to get Wilder a win so he then could face off against Joshua finally.
But, Joseph Parker had other plans. The fight against Joseph Parker saw a timid Deontay Wilder fail to pull the trigger and get thoroughly outboxed. This obviously put a spanner in the works however Mr Alalshikh was determined to get Joshua vs Wilder. Wilder was given a 2nd chance with a fight against Zhieli Zhang on the Matchroom vs Queensberry show in 2024. Specifically for this card Wilder signed with Eddie Hearn. Again we saw the shell of Deontay Wilder get beaten up getting knocked out by Zhang in round 5.
Retirement?
Prior to the Zhang fight Wilder was talking about retirement if he lost and well he lost. So expect a retirement statement from Wilder some point soon. Retirement is probably for the best he seems to have had his ferocity beaten out of him as well as the ability to pull the trigger. And, given Wilder’s one trick of a big right hand doesn’t seem to cut it anymore at the top level he should retire.
Wilder’s recent struggles have also led to questions over how good he actually was. Deontay was always technically limited however since the Fury fights he seems to be lacking something. Namely, Wilder has lost his ability to pull the trigger either through lack of confidence or physical decline. The Fury fights have also taken away a level of confidence from Wilder which also has damaged his commitment to the right hand.
Deontay lacks any technical abilities and ability to properly defend himself and unless he plans on taking more damage he should retire. Wilder has had a decent career he is a tremendous over-achiever with how far he got with such limited ability. This should be curtains for the Bronze Bomber who for the most part was never in a boring fight. Deontay Wilder will have a complicated legacy and will be remembered as a one trick pony with a hell of a trick.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
