Deontay Wilder says bleeding ear did not affect him in Tyson Fury fight
Deontay Wilder claims the damage to his ear had no effect on his performance during his world heavyweight title defeat to Tyson Fury on Sunday.
Fury floored the formerly unbeaten WBC champion twice before his corner threw the towel in in the seventh round at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The first knockdown, sustained in the third round, saw Wilder bleed profusely from his left ear with Jay Deas, the American’s head trainer and cut man, struggling to stop it between rounds.
But Wilder claims the wound didn’t affect his performance instead insisting illegal tactics from Fury made more of a difference to the outcome.
“It didn’t affect me at all,” Wilder said. “When you’re in there and you’re fighting, and you’re a warrior, man, I can only speak from myself, I don’t worry about certain things.
“My adrenaline is very high in there. I knew it was bleeding, but I don’t think it was affecting me. It didn’t affect me like the rabbit punches and stuff like that.
“Getting hit on the back of the head and the neck, that affected me more than anything.”
Wilder was thoroughly outclassed by Fury on the night but has since claimed he was hindered by the 40lb outfit he wore on the way to the ring.
“He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is my uniform was way too heavy for me,” he said. “I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight. In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through.
“I was only able to put it on [for the first time] the night before but I didn’t think it was going to be that heavy. It weighed 40, 40-some pounds with the helmet and all the batteries.
“I wanted my tribute to be great for Black History Month. I wanted it to be good and I guess I put that before anything.”
Under the terms of their second meeting, Wilder is in a position to demand a third fight, which he has indicated he will do despite the conclusive nature of Fury’s victory.
But he will not have former world champion Mark Breland in his corner after Breland was criticised for throwing in the towel during the seventh round, prompting the referee’s intervention.
Wilder, who confirmed he would remove Breland from his team, confirmed: “I am upset with Mark for the simple fact that we’ve talked about this many times and it’s not emotional.
“I said as a warrior, as a champion, as a leader, as a ruler, I want to go out on my shield. If I’m talking about going in and killing a man, I respect the same way. I abide by the same principal of receiving.
“So I told my team to never, ever, no matter what it may look like, to never throw the towel in with me because I’m a special kind. I still had five rounds left. No matter what it looked like, I was still in the fight.”
Read more
Masterful Fury dismantles Wilder to regain heavyweight crown
