Excuses...excuses....

 

Deontay Wilder, the defrocked heavyweight titlist, is talking a lot lately. 

If you've paid attention to Wilder in recent years, this is not so unusual. He's a talker, the way a lion is a carnivore. 

In the past, he's usually talked about his devastating knockout punch, and how he uses positive thinking to harness the power of the universe into his right hand. Now he talks only about Tyson Fury, and how their bout earlier this year was marred because the big Brit cheated.

Wilder hasn't always been so verbose. After his bronze medal win at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he was a mild-mannered, grateful young guy whose only concern was being able to gain weight without sweating it off in the heat of his native Alabama. In recent years, though, he's been waging social media wars with anyone his mouth can reach, including past champions. It seemed he had tapped into this part of his personality in hopes of creating hype for himself, getting his name "out there."

After a lengthy reign as an undefeated heavyweight titleholder, and a string of impressive wins by knockout, Wilder had achieved a status that no American heavyweight has enjoyed in many years. But then came a draw with Fury in 2018, and then, shockingly, a TKO loss to Fury in 2020, one where Wilder was manhandled and smashed to the canvas many times before the contest was stopped in the seventh round. It was as disastrous a loss as we've ever witnessed for such a knockout artist as Wilder.

His face had been butchered, his left ear nearly torn off. Men thrown through the windshields of cars came out looking better than Wilder did on this night. He first blamed his performance on the bulky costume he'd worn into the ring, some unusual plumage that better belonged on an actor chasing Sigourney Weaver in an Alien movie. The cumbersome rig was apparently so heavy that Wilder's legs were exhausted before the opening bell. Then he blamed his trainer for stopping the contest prematurely, and even poisoning him. Wilder's display of sour grapes climaxed with him pointing to irregularities in Fury's gloves, as damning an accusation as can be made in the business.

Wilder's latest accusation isn't entirely his own - other's have pointed out that Fury's gloves looked peculiar during the bout - but America's fiercest heavyweight may be losing fans every time he opens his mouth.

Creative excuses from fighters are as old as the Marquis of Queensbury rules. When Marvin Hagler lost to Ray Leonard in 1987 he spun out  conspiracy theories about the boxing authorities working against him. Manny Pacquiao once blamed a bad performance on some badly fitting socks. After Muhammad Ali beat him in Zaire, George Foreman talked about someone drugging his water, a quick count from the referee, and voodoo curses. 

Foreman needed many years to come out of the fog created by his loss to Ali, but did so with a surprisingly mature attitude. "Muhammad amazed me," he said in 'Muhammad Ali: his Life and Times.' "I'll admit it. He outhought me; he outfought me. That night he was just the better man in the ring." Time helped Foreman accept his defeat, but there's no telling if Wilder will ever be so magnanimous regarding Fury.

The accusations leveled by Wilder are serious, including Fury having an object in his glove that actually left a still visible dent in Wilder's face. Wilder has spoken about this on social media, his voice heavy and dark. But no one is really buying it.

Wilder wants so badly to be seen as a kind of mythical, almost holy warrior that he peppers his diatribes with quotes from the Bible,  a cut rate Elmer Gantry bellowing at the flock. "He will have to pay back seven times what he stole," Wilder said at the end of his most recent monologue about Fury. "Even if he has to sell everything in his house. And payback is coming." 

By painting himself as a righteous champion cheated out of his title, Wilder  may simply be putting himself into a particular frame of mind, that of the unjustly beaten man out for revenge. He certainly wouldn't be the first fighter to talk his way into a victorious mindset - Ali did it all the time  - but he's taking a risk. No one likes a sore loser, and despite Wilder's quasi-biblical posturing, he simply sounds like a guy who doesn't know how to deal with failure. Then again, he knows the customers are fickle; if he beats Fury in a third bout, those fans will be right back in his corner. And if believing he's a victim of cheating helps him get there, so be it.

But a note to Wilder: the Bible is a big book. Check if there's anything in there about keeping your hands up and your chin down. That might help. 

And the costume? Next time, try it on in the store first.

- Don Stradley