Deontay Wilder sounds like he’s mentally checking out already, talking about retiring if he loses his fight this Saturday night against Zhilei Zhang in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) has a defeatist mindset about him in the build-up to his twelve-round clash against Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) in their contest at the Kingdom Arena on the 5 vs 5 event.
Negative Impact on Morale
Promoter Eddie Hearn has got to have some misgivings about selecting the 38-year-old Wilder as his Matchroom Team captain right about now.
Wilder’s gloomy outlook for his fight is a negative for the captain position. When you’re on the battlefield, it’s a bad look for the person in charge of the troops to have a pessimistic view. It brings down the morale.
It’s too late for Hearn to replace Wilder, but he needs to pull him aside and let him know that he needs to clamp down on his negative talk because he’s supposed to be the leader. If a general were in charge, he would consider removing Wilder from command as the captain because he doesn’t sound fit for battle.
Wilder’s Comments Raise Red Flags
“I don’t think the heavyweight division is exciting without Deontay Wilder in it, but come Saturday night, we’ll see,” said Deontay Wilder to Secondsout, talking about his match against Zhilei Zhang this Saturday in Riyadh.
“Will I prevail? Who knows? But on Saturday night, it’s the true answer, and we’re going to see. This could be the end of the career. This could be the final goodbyes, the farewell of Deontay Wilder if I lose. If I win, of course, I go onto bigger and better things.”
Zhang, 40, is there to be hit, but he has massive power in both hands. If connects clean with any of his shots, he’s going to knock Wilder out. The only chance Wilder has is to get to Zhang before he lands one of his power shots because the fight will be over if the two-time Chinese Olympian lands anything.
Zhang has the kind of power where even if he lands a glancing blow, he’ll KO Wilder. As fans saw in Wilder’s two knockout losses to Tyson Fury, he can’t take a punch without folding.
Wilder-Zhang will be shown live on DAZN PPV this Saturday, June 1st, in Riyadh.
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