Deontay Wilder discusses arm injury, weight loss on media call

During a Dec. 4 media conference call, Deontay Wilder discussed his newly disclosed arm injury and his low weight entering his bout with Tyson Fury.

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, Deontay Wilder addressed the media in a conference call to discuss many elements surrounding his bout with Tyson Fury. He assessed his performance, explained a newly disclosed arm injury suffered before training camp and his weight on fight night.

Wilder was mildly critical of his performance against Fury. He thought he tried too hard for the knockout and that altered the way he fought.

“I wanted to end it on a great note,” Wilder said. “I wanted to end it in a devastating knockout, and I pressed that. I pressed that too much for myself. I think I applied more pressure on myself than anything and that allowed me to get out of character. I allowed me to abandon the game plan.”

During the pre-fight weigh-in, Wilder came in at 212 1/2 pounds, which was the lowest since his debut in 2008. When weighed a second time, his weight registered at 209 pounds.

“You looking at a guy that weighed in at 212,” Wilder said. “And then when I got dressed in the back of the room and came in with the official weigh-in with the people that weighed me — I came in at 209. I couldn’t believe my weight dropped even more after I weighed in. That kind of bothered me as well.”

Wilder didn’t offer up a rationale for his weight reduction, but it might have something to do with a significant arm injury he sustained 12 weeks before camp. His injury was kept secret from the media, but Wilder discussed it hours before the media call to the Youtube channel “Barbershop Conversations.”

“A lot of people don’t know that 12 weeks before camp I broke my arm. We kept that a secret. I had surgery and everything.

“I was sparring and just getting ready. I was getting the best of my sparring partner. I was going to the body, and he turned, and his elbow was out. My bones and his elbow went together like a hammer to a nail, and it just broke it.”

During Tuesday’s media call, Wilder elaborated on how his previously undisclosed injury impacted his training camp:

“That whole camp, I barely threw any right hands. It was all left hooks and jabs. Me breaking my arm and being that I was reserving it for the fight, could have played a part of my accuracy along with being anxious to knock him out.”

When FanSided visited Wilder’s camp in early November, his limited use of the right hand was very noticeable. His team denied an injury at the time and said it was precautionary.

Wilder vs. Fury is being deemed a success after The Ring reported that the fight was on pace to surpass 300,000 pay-per-view buys. If the rematch occurs next, it will be interesting to see how much Wilder’s arm injury hampered his performance.