Ring IQ is a term never seen anywhere near Deontay Wilder’s name. His right hand has been all the IQ he has ever needed. He throws it. It lands. It’s over. It’s a pretty simple formula. The proof rests in his astonishing record. Forty-two fights, 40 stoppages. Brilliant, no matter how you calculate it.
Yet Wilder says he doesn’t get the credit he deserves for thinking through adversity.
Example: A rocky seventh round in his victory over Luis Ortiz in their first fight on March 3, 2018 in Brooklyn.
“Yes, I remember getting buzzed,’’ Wilder said in a conference call this week for their rematch on November 23 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
But the buzz didn’t cloud his thinking, Wilder said. He bluffed, he said, but then thought better of it as Ortiz came after him. Wilder said he knew he had to maintain a safe distance, which meant staying close enough to eliminate the leverage Ortiz needed to deliver a finishing blow. For the round’s remaining 40 seconds, that’s what he did, allowing the heavyweight champion to go on to win by a 10th-round stoppage.
“I didn’t get no credit for the intellect that I had in the ring coming around in the seventh round,’’ Wilder said. “So I knew what I was doing and when the bell rung. You can see I knew exactly where I was. I went right back to my corner and I still was talking (expletive) going back there, too.’’
Wilder said he was never hurt in the pivotal round.
“I think people use hurt too much,’’ Wilder said. “They throw that (around) too much because they don’t understand the difference between buzzed and hurt. I advise anybody, if you are in boxing and you want to talk about boxing, experience some of things that we go through. Go in the ring, get hit and see what it feels like to get buzzed or maybe even get knocked out.
“But I understood everything that was going on with me. I was coaching myself internally. My inner voice was telling myself to keep going.’’
Ringside pundits didn’t see what was happening, Wilder said.
“I didn’t want to waste any unnecessary energy, because I wanted to be able to recover,’’ he said. “So,I didn’t want to use that much energy, and so that’s why I hit him anywhere I could, no matter where. It was so that the referee could understand that I’m very active. I’m aware and I can still fight. I don’t think I got enough credit for that.’’