Deontay Wilder believes his greatest rival Tyson Fury will hang up the boxing gloves. However, he denied talking much about it.
Fury, who is still officially the WBC Heavyweight Champion, has once again announced his retirement after taking shots at a few potential opponents.
Meanwhile, former WBC champion Deontay Wilder has announced his return against Robert Helenius after two consecutive losses against Fury. While ‘The Gypsy King’ tried to end his feud with Wilder after their fight, the Alabama native didn’t reflect the same intentions.
Ten months on from their trilogy bout, Wilder spoke about Fury’s retirement and said (as reported by talkSPORT's Michael Benson on Twitter):
"I think he's gonna have to retire. He's gonna have to. It's a lot of stuff going on. I'm not gonna even get into it, but it's looking like he's gonna have to. I can't give too much information out, I don't really wanna discuss it."
Wilder accused Fury of cheating after suffering his first career loss against the Briton in their rematch in 2020. It took him over a year to return and collide with 'The Gypsy King' in an epic trilogy fight. This time, Wilder appeared as the challenger to the WBC World Title.
By that time, a lot had changed in his team's corner. Wilder was no longer with trainer Mark Breland and had joined forces with Malik Scott. The move seemed beneficial as 'The Bronze Bomber' took the third fight against Fury to the championship rounds. However, he was knocked out in the 11th round. Wilder’s unsuccessful attempt at the WBC belt despite all the effort urged him to consider a lay-off.
Watch Fury vs. Wilder 3 below:
Meanwhile, Tyson Fury defended the WBC belt once again by knocking out Dillian Whyte at Wembley in April this year. While it opened the door to several more matchups for him, ‘The Gypsy King’ claims to be retired.
Deontay Wilder can have another crack at the world title
Wilder (42-2-1) is still a top-tier heavyweight contender and might be one win away from another world title shot. That said, several challengers have already eyed up the knockout artist. ‘The Body Snatcher' Dilian Whyte falls on that list. Eddie Hearn is also interested in matching up one of his fighters against Wilder.
‘The Bronze Bomber’ has also teased a trilogy bout against Luis Ortiz provided ‘King Kong’ gets past Andy Ruiz Jr. All said and done, the greatest heavyweight knockout artist of the modern generation seems far from hanging up his boxing gloves.