Excuses, Excuses, Even Wilder Excuses…

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where
I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.

Excuses, Excuses, Even Wilder Excuses…

There is nothing so bad as a guy who loses disgracefully.

Sport is littered with examples of people who cannot take the loss or who come up with wild and stupid reasons as to why they lost a contest. That has included some fanciful nonsense over the years including the Ukrainian soccer team at the 2006 World Cup claiming that their 4-0 loss to Spain was down to having noisy frogs near their hotel which meant they didn’t sleep the night before the game or the Zambian tennis player, Lighton Ndefwayl who lost to a rival because his pants – as in underwear, not trousers – were too tight, and his opponent farted when serving making a stink!

They are all laughable and likely to cause most sports fans to simply guffaw and scorn the person saying them out loud. In boxing we have had our fair share, and we can lament the excuse given by David Haye after losing to Wladimir Klitschko, telling the assorted media he had a broken toe which hampered his gameplan, but he is a mere amateur in comparison to a former WBC heavyweight champion.

Nobody in this fine art can bring ridicule onto themselves more than Deontay Wilder and recently he has been at it again.

Last year, just before Christmas, Wilder faced Joseph Parker, in the dessert. It was a setup, a stepping stone fight to everyone’s dream contest of Wilder finally facing Anthony Joshua. With Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury being locked in for the undisputed, thereafter this was to be an eliminator for a second undisputed heavyweight contest of the year. The winner of one, would face the winner of the other and we would see the King be crowned atop all four.

Then Wilder lost. Parker completely outboxed, out thought and outfought him. Parker won and did so with great skill.

To many of us we already knew what kind of loser in the ring, Wilder was. In three contests against Tyson Fury, none of which he won, there were flurries of excuses and claims of cheating against his opponent. Not for Wilder was the opportunity to be taken to smile for the cameras, accept the best man won on the night and avoid the limelight as to the victor comes the spoils.

Whilst Wilder is now being seen by most as a fighter in decline, as his last four fights have included three losses, he can lay claim to having some of the most ridiculous and world level weary lame reasons as to why he has lost a fight. Firstly, in the fight with Parker, he claimed his timing was off because he had been out of the ring for 14 months. That inactivity is cited is actually fair enough. To retain the ability to fight at a certain level boxers need to be kept busy. Wilder chose not to be busy, so it is all on him and he did accept some responsibility for his own ring rust.

Then he claimed that Parker did not deserve to win and that he had managed to hurt Parker. Parker did and he did not. But again, fair play, there are many boxers who leave a ring and defend themselves against the evidence of what happened when they were in the ring. It does not give much respect to someone who just beat them, but we can get on board with some of the reasoning for a sport and sports star that is built up on confidence – even though boxers also need honesty – to thrive.

Finally, came the new excuse after the first two were given not long after the fight. The next excuse, was that the travel cost him valuable rest time and he was not focused due to being tired… Boxing is all about preparation and the guy who has that in their hands? The boxer with a team around him to advise.

Wilder, whose legacy is being tainted by himself is now facing further ridicule as the three excuses given for losing to Parker, are now added to the excuses he offered for his loss to Tyson Fury in their second fight. He claimed that his water was spiked, with no evidence; that his ring walk costume was too heavy and left his legs weight drained, despite wearing a heavier vest for training which did not seem to weight drain his training regime; that his trainer Mark Breland had thrown in the towel and given up contrary to his wishes and the evidence before him, which everyone saw as Wilder being severely beaten and needing someone to rescue him; that Fury cheated with an egg shaped object being placed in his gloves which led to an injury in the fight, despite his own team watching over Fury’s hands being wrapped as well as the WBC…

It sullies a legacy of a fighter who brought excitement and drama to the heavyweight division and his decline is being secured by the ramblings coming out of his very own mouth. For most fight fans, his remaining time in boxing is surely now at an end. The fight with Joshua could still happen if Joshua beats Ngannou and Fury/Usyk has a rematch clause which means they fight twice in 2024. Wilder/AJ may still get made but Wilder would not deserve it. Mind you with Middle East money who knows what craziness is in town for the sport…

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