Deontay Wilder might be the first in heavyweight-title history to blame his loss on a costume.
It was too heavy, he told multiple outlets.
Maybe next time, he should just take a towel, cut a hole through the middle of it for his head and march into the ring the way Mike Tyson did.
It was primitive, but it was light. Worked, too
We’re not exactly sure how to describe what Wilder wore into the ring Saturday night at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. It was part comic book and part medieval. Apparently, it included batteries and who knows-what-all. It looked as if he were covered by more armor than an Abrams tank. He could have used some of that armor against Tyson Fury, who saved his legs. He didn’t walk at all. Fury was carried into the ring like some modern-day Caesar.
At the opening bell, however, Wilder’s armor was gone and apparently so were his legs.
In a fashion statement Monday, Wilder said his legs were shot from the weight of the costume, which reportedly cost $40,000.
“My uniform was way too heavy for me,” Wilder, who lost his title when assistant trainer Mark Breland threw in the towel in the seventh round of the rematch, told Yahoo! Sports. “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.’’
Wilder was knocked down in the third. He was knocked down again in the fifth. He slipped a couple of times
“But I’m a warrior and people know that I’m a warrior,’’ said Wilder, who added that he wore the costume as a tribute to Black History Month. “It could easily be told that I didn’t have legs or anything. A lot of people were telling me, ‘It looked like something was wrong with you.’
“Something was, but when you’re in the ring, you have to bluff a lot of things. I tried my best to do so. I knew I didn’t have the legs because of my uniform.’’
It sounds as if Wilder will shop for a new costume for a third fight. He said he intends to exercise an option for a third fight. Maybe he’ll opt for something a little bit more traditional.
Something like a robe.