M hm. Well, it's my great pleasure to welcome to our podcast the
one and only former WBC Heavyweight Champions of the World, Deyonday Wilder and Deonday.
I know you've got a big fight. We're talking. You're in Saudi
Araby and Riad getting ready uh in the final prep for your June first fight
in Riad against Zilly Zang, the main event of the five on Fight the
Zone pay per view card. First of all, how was your trip to
Saudi Araby? Back uh back back in action there once again? Yeah?
Man, my my, my trip has been amazing. You know, from
from when I've around here and even to now, you know, the the
treatment and the love and respect has been U been been amazing. You know.
I love I love being here. I love the atmosphere and most of
all, I love the people. That's that's that's that's here, that that
surround this this uh country, the ones that special, the ones that I
encountered with. So it's been great. I'm glad to hear that. Before
we get into your fight, I just wanted to ask you because it's been
the talk of the boxing world pretty much since May eighteenth. That's when your
old rival Tyson Fury squared off with Alexander Usik. They were fighting for,
of course, the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world, and Alexander Usik,
who eked out to split decisions, scored a late knockdown that proved to be
the difference in his victory or a draw. And I wondered if you if
you watched that fight, and if so, what did you think seeing your
old rival and obviously the now undisputed champ due battle like they did. Yeah,
I didn't really get to see fool of it. I saw the ending
of it. I saw when the us was coming on to him and the
referee stopped him from knocking him out, and you know, from that point
it was a point of good fighting too. Then a lot of people was
asking me who I thought were we, and you know, I was always
saying I was on the fence because you just never know being a peaceable was
thinking Tyson because of the hide and wait, he liked to lend on people
and stuff like that. But you know I didn't let that. I didn't
let that be the decision in my factor, because it's all about what dollars
you bring to that fight. Everybody have the days. Everybody have bad days,
and congratulations to to use it, you know. In the victory,
Yeah, a terrific fight. Uh. And now now looking at your situation
here, so in December in Saudi Arabia, you know you took a loss
in a decision to Joseph Parker. I think, uh, if if anybody
watches that back and as honest they see a Deontay Wilder that just didn't throw
a lot of punches, certainly could not land your money punch was obviously your
phenomenal right hand. Uh. And so when you look back at that fight,
Deontay, what in your mind do you feel like went wrong? And
uh, what adjustments maybe have you made, either physically or mentally as you
prepare for the fight with jan Yeah, a lot of we made a lot
of mistakes in the in the final quarters of camp and stuff like you know,
different different things like that, you know, and certain judgments and stuff.
But the main, the main factor I feel was the inactivity. I
didn't realize that I was out of the ring almost two years myself. You
know, I've been so busy doing other things in the different countries and stuff.
I didn't you know, the years when you get busy years, like
I didn't even realize that, but that was one of the main big factors
that inactivity, right, I mean, you had had you had had the
one fight, but it only you know, since the Third Fury fight.
You're right, you've been off over two years other than yeah, the Hellnius
fight, but it only lasted less than three minutes. You're saying that was
a fact that, Yeah, I think because when I'm in a ring,
you know, I felt good. I was in shape, as you can
see. I went twelve rounds. I mean, if it was a reversal
of if it was a reversal that Joseph Barker was me and I was him,
I would have knocked him out, you know, inactivity. I went
twelve rounds with him, and only fact it was that you know that,
you know, he ended up getting a couple of punches on me, and
that became the fact that of the fight because it was a boy. But
until that point you said, yeah, you said there were some things in
the last part of your camp that you you, I don't know, miscalculator
didn't do correctly. Can you detail any of those things, I mean,
is it irrelevant? Okay, well that is it relevant at the point of
time, and I don't want people to say or make an excuse and stuff.
You know, even when you even when you stay to the truth of
the fact, you know, people will always hell excuse you know, so
I'd rather not say. You know, if anything I learned from I learned
from my mistakes and they craved me better. But I can say I can't
say that, uh that I appreciate. For one, I can pull the
trigger at all. And many times I've seen openings and shots. I could
have threw my right hand and and certain things, certain things that that I
boughted his punches. I could have came that and did, but my body
would and just wouldn't do it. And I'm thinking, and I'm like,
what the fuck? I felt good training, I felt good, woman up,
but when it was time to fight, I couldn't point a trigger and
that I just couldn't do it. My body wouldn't do it, and I
was maybe it was something inactivity and other things. But at the end of
the day, I always say, a lesson is a blessing and from that
and from that fight, I became even better. So I always tell people
I'm back, and from that point I've been going to un stop, you
know. So I needed that because if I didn't take if I didn't take
that law, I would have still been the same, meaning I wouldn't I
would have said, well, you know, nothing needs to be changed.
I can still go on when I thought I gotta figure it out. But
you know, being in that fight and let me know that not, you
still got a lot of my work to do. You ain't done it now.
I'm not saying this. I'm not saying this is the case, but
in my experience of a long time of covering boxing, when you hear fighters
or trainers for or promoters managers talk about the definition of a shot fighter,
and I'm not saying Deontay Wilder is a shot fighter, but the thing that
they say is the fighter sees the opening and you use the exact phrase,
can't pull the trigger. Do you feel like you're getting to that stage of
your career or you feel like the Parker fight was an anomaly. I'm far
from a shot fighter, you know. I started lad in this business.
I haven't tookn a lot of damage and I'm still good, you know.
Uh, And you know, my team we gathered up and and we we
talked about that that's that that that that uh, that exact thing where we're
talking about being side or being you know it's too old or everything fading away.
And you know everyone agrees, you know, and I have hundred people
on my team. I don't have no business. You know I have especially
at this point in time in my life now, you know, because we
were trying to get back to the top. And the only way you can
get back to it we have honesty and working hall. And you know many
of my all my guys, like especially Jay, you know that's that's my
right hand man. Sure, you know he was and you know I came
in a game with him. I'm still with himself. Well, a lot
of people know you're you're talking about JD's there's been there from day one exactly.
So I I I take in and I take in his opinion very well,
you know, very well more than anybody because the relationship that we have
and I've been in there, I know when he say he loves me and
care about me, I know that man does. And we had that discussion.
You're like, look see if you was if you was a shot fighter,
or if you was losing anything or you would, I would take I
would be the first to tell you, so that's not the case when you
took UH ahead, And I don't feel that's the case either. And I
mentioned myself from this camp into a lot of other camps, and I'm far,
I'm far of being a shot fighter. So when you had to fight
UH with Joseph Parker back in December, and I know in the aftermath,
you know, you do the interview in the ring and stuff, there seemed
to be a little bit of maybe I'll consider walking away. Obviously you've had
a lot of success, You've made a tremendous amount of money, UH that
maybe it would be the end. But obviously you've decided to return. I
wonder after that, in those days and weeks were you thinking about retirement and
when you decided not to, how anxious were you to get back in the
ring, because you know, for you, this is a pretty quick turnaround
relative to the way it's been over the last few years of your career.
Yeah, when when when When When you have situations and uh actions happen like
that, when you can't pull the triller stuff like that, you want one
wonders what it is you know, I didn't you know after after a fight,
so many different things go to a fight ahead. Yeah, of course
at that point in time, because there's a lot of adrenaline, rust going,
there's a lot of you know, confusion, there's a lot of adults
going in your head. So of course, you know, being knowing that
I was out a long time, coming in like that, You know that
we're the wonder of when you're breaking, is it time? And you start
thinking about the success and the things that you got going outside of boxing,
Do you really want to still do it because you don't really need it no
more? And you know, a lot of things that are going through my
head, you know, I think emotionally I was speaking, you know,
but once I physically started getting back into training, and then I put my
emotions to my side and I was like, let me see if I give
it one hundred and ten percent like I used to, if I become a
gym racked again like I used to. That got me to the point,
let me see what the results is. Do I still feel the same way
that I did back then? And I can say today that I don't feel
the same way. I'm not the same fighter, you know, and my
hunger. My hunger has came back. I wasn't hungry in that fight.
I wasn't hungry, you know, from a lot of period. I wasn't
even hungry in the Miladi Alita's fight. About that, though, you say
you weren't hungry, And I wonder you had in the fight with Parker,
the sign contract for the fight that everybody wanted to see. I think that
you've wanted for many years, that Anthony Joshua wanted for many years. You're
able to finally make the deal. And so, I mean, I'm not
trying to be disrespectful at all, but I'm wondering, in your mind,
how is it that you could be, you know, not say motivated,
when you've got that gigantic fight that everybody the world has wanted to see forever,
uh right there in the palm of your hand, and uh, you
know, and you let it slip away to that, you know, in
that sense, right right right? Well definitely, And yeah, and I
can understand how want to see it that way, But when you've been through
so much, especially dealing with them, you you your mind, like you
know, all those themes have been signed. You know, you got to
understand people don't know behind closed doors with that. It took him up every
long time to sign that contract. That wasn't just immediate signing whatever. Believe
that was a hard, hard deal to get all squared away. Believe me,
I'm aware of that. Yep, yep. And and we had a
lot of history with them saying one thing but doing another. So to be
honest, I was not one hundred percent convinced that he was still fighting even
the sign contracted, even with the sign country that. I was not convinced
that he was gonna fight you because of his actions, because of the things
that I was hearing from. You know, we had a lot of a
lot of people around, a lot of resources, A lot of things goes
on in boxing that you know, people people, people talk people, even
especially when you think you've got people with honesty, honest around you, and
you know people you know in boxing talk, they're gonna talk. And a
lot of things was coming back to us as well, and stuff like that,
So I wasn't I wasn't. Look, the man didn't take fifty million
dollars and there was gonna be lesser than that. So if you didn't take
fifty why would he you know, take this or whatever. And I just
wasn't convinced. And that's why my hunger didn't you know, my hunger didn't
go go up. You know, it just stayed the same, you know,
because I wasn't convinced that he would still fight even after so but at
the end of the day, I'm not you know, at the end of
the day, this is a brighter, a new day for me. My
hunger is back, and my hunger is back because of the meeting is that
I've had with His excellency in and his staff and people, and you know,
many time being in America, they criticized me, they crucified me,
they drove my name in the dirty when I only was myself to express myself
because I always say I risked my life for others entertainment. So I feel
as if I'm risking my life because boxing, you know, you don't know
what's gonna happen when you when you get in that ring, you don't know
you're gonna get to be the same way to come out. We've seen that
over thirteen five diars a year inbody, but that's never talked about. The
nethers of boxing's never talked about. And I feel that if I'm going to
risk my life, then I'm gonna speak it the way I want to speak.
If I say I'm gonna kill a man or whatever, I'm gonna speak
how I want to speak. Because the reality then when we set up in
rows, that's what we're doing. But it's all dressed up. It's dressed
up. That seemed like there's a competition. Yes, it's a competition,
but it's a gladiator competition. We don't know what's gonna happen at the end
of it. So with that being said, that unknown allows me to speak
my peace, to be open hearted, whole, whole hearted, open and
honest about how I feel about U, be the usual how I'm feeling at
the moment in time as a warrior. I'm worried, part yeah, to
be a be to be with this foll even and to tell them they say
they don't want the nice guy. We don't want that. They told me,
we don't want mister nine guy, no more. We don't we want
that to kill him. We want okay, they wow, man, they
said, we want crazy wild. And when they told me that, when
they told me that, my heart lifted back up, my fire, my
plane and my heart it relieved the different with this business, you know,
it was just it was just different. That That's one of the things that
made covering your career a lot of fun because not only were you scoring big
knockouts and making excitement in the fights, but you were a guy that has
still has a big personality outside that makes it. You know, you got
the action inside the ring with the punching power, and you got the personality
outside ring. That's what's made it. That's what helped you become a star
that you became. So no one's knocking that there, uh, exactly.
So. So when when you get so many people, you know in America,
when you feel like they're supposed to be with you, you know,
whether they want to hang on, whether they you know, they want to
just throwing most of the governments into you know, you like, like,
what the fuck let me because we're not we're not we're not greening piece.
It's like, y'all don't want to meet Wilder, but you don't want the
peace for Wilder. What do you want? It's like, damn if you
do it, damn if you don't. And it's like a confusing thing.
You know, when you try to please Peoven. That's one of the things
that that that that that I went wrong trying to please others. Well,
let's let's talk about the fight itself that you got coming up. Uh in
March, your opponent, Jilly Jang also lost the decision to Joseph Parker.
Now granted his was closer than yours. It was a majority decision, and
even though he lost, he actually scored two knockdowns against Joseph Parker. So
what did you make out of that performance and what sorts of things do you
see from Jang that you feel like you can exploit. I look at I
see Deontay Wilder. Uh. You know, you both have great punching power.
You probably faster than he is. I just wonder when you assess his
performance with Parker what you see in Jang Jula, y'all. I actually like
Zay, you know. I like Big Banks. I like the name and
everything Big Bank Day. I like that, you know, And he's a
he's a he's a good fighter as well, you know, as a south
Fall. And but to think about it, I love south Falls, you
know, I do very well with South Falls, and I like that we
lined each other up for that big bang for that big right hand, and
he did. He did well. Uh with Parker and stuff. I think
he would have executed even more if it didn't run out of gas and stuff.
You know, with him, it's like with him, as the work,
as the rounds goes on, he declined. And I don't know is
that dealing with his conditioning or is that dealing with that that that that leg,
that bad leg that he got, or the motivation that he has.
I don't know, But I'm looking to explore that because for me, I
started slow, but I started incline as as things goes on, especially when
I'm on im, and then everything's going that what happens to me, And
I think that's gonna be a main fact for me. But also, like
I said, the hog in the fire as the relieved. But I tell
people all the time, I can I can sit here and say so many
great things that I'm gonna do this. I can't wait to do that whatever.
But Jon JUNI person's gonna reveal everything, and everyone's watching, it's gonna
be a witness to it. Yeah, I think there's an easy way to
look at this fight. You tell me if you agree with this, I
look at Deontay Wilder with you know, in my twenty five years of covering
boxing, the best right hand I've ever seen. I look at Jilly Zang,
I see an absolutely bomb of a left hand because he's a south pod
tremendous straight left hand, both with one punch power, but specifically with that
hand that you're so expert in both of you. So I look at it
this fight, it's Deontay Wilder his right hand against Jilly Jang's left hand,
and basically, whoever can land the biggest bomb before the other guy has the
better chance to win the fight. Am I crazy? Or do you think
that that's the way the way you look at it, Oh, you're right
on. I feel it. I feel the same way you know, and
I think a lot of other people would agree with that as well. And
this is what makes it a starting to fight, because of the power,
because of the heavy weights us not why they want to see a twelve round,
but they want to see somebody get knocked out with it. I would
say one thing about you, watching you for your entire career, is that
for a long time, when you were scoring so many that those huge knockouts
with your right hand, you did a really good job by using your jab
and setting it up to like leave, you know, make sure that you
set up the right hand as opposed to just looking for the one shot.
My humble opinion is over the recent fights there's been a not as much of
a commitment to trying to set it up and just going out there and looking
for the watch. I think specifically for example of the rematch against King Kong
Ortiz, can you get back to using your job to set up one of
the greatest punches in boxing history of that? But I can and I will.
You know, this is something that I've committed myself to. This is
something that I I test myself in this this training camp. I know I'm
back because of this. This capter, this previous chapter I had has been
one of the best camp that I had in a long time. And a
lot of the things that I used to do and start doing the here and
start going back to it, the jabs and stuff like that. When I
get back to the top and he and I get those titles backs, one
man for sure that I'm gonna gonna acknowledge and appreciate his uh is Blackymir Clisco.
Uh I talked to him after the Department fund. You had a Yeah,
we had a conversation and he was telling me, he said, man,
you have a beautiful jab. He said, I don't know why in
the hell you don't use it. He's a good man to listen to about
that, because he had a great job. Yeah, yes he did right
here and and and he told me, I don't know why the hell you
don't use it. And it really just made me think real hard, even
after we sell a lot of many other things. And but that really resonated
with me, you know, to you know, because he really was faring
with me and stuff like that, and and just seeing upon you know,
just just you know, watching bikes and watching my fights. And I said,
you know what, I gotta go back to. I gotta I gotta
start doing more jazzs and around. I gotta start setting it up like I
do. So what we've been doing in this camp, we've been counting the
jabs and stuff. How did how did that conversation come about? Did you
just pick up the phone and call you after watching the fight? Yes,
what the call came about? I actually called him, you know, you
know with Shelley and Shelley, you know, they still talk and stuff like
that. And I actually called him because I was reflecting on my career,
like I said, you know, it was just discussed after the fight.
I was considering about, you know, maybe we should retire and stuff,
and I thought, and he came to my head, like all the fighters
I could have called, all the guys I could have you know, talked
to about you know, being a mentor for me, he pumped up in
my head, you know. And you know, I'm always I'm I'm an
energy type of person. I go with what I feel, my intuition.
And when I saw him pop in my head like I got a call,
it was a sign for me. And I called them, and we had
a beautiful conversation, you know, and he was telling me. He was
telling me how everybody, everybody, uh went against him. Everybody told him
to stop, to quit, He said, do it. He didn't believe
in him, even his own brother. He said, one thing I wanted
to do is prove everybody wrong and also proved myself wrong, because he said
he beat it himself up as well, but we always are the biggest critic.
And he said he beating himself up so bad that you know, he
just really wanted to prove everybody himself wrong. And you know, like I
said, we had a beautiful conversation. He gave me a lot of inlight
on a lot of things in boxing and and and it's gonna be It's gonna
be great for me. So I'm looking forward to to to discipline what I
have. Went back and re and reesthetic, re rearranged myself. You know,
Dan, I started to modify my skills and the things I was doing.
I'm not a I'm not a boxer. I'm a stone cold, fucking
firete killer. And that's it. You know. I never claimed to be
a boxer and none of that because God did make me like that. If
God may be a boxer, then I'm just I'm just like any other boxer
boxing box But He made me different and that's what makes people unique, the
different in them that draws the attention. And I was like, why am
I trying to modify my skill of what God blessed me with to try to
prease others? And that's what I did. I fell away from that.
But now at this point in time, I'm selfish. I've been selfless for
a long time, but now I'm selfish. Well, I'm not surprised that
Vladimir was very good to you, as you say on that call, because
I don't even know if you know this, but when Anthony Joshua took his
loss first time against Andy ruiz Uh, he had a long conversation and was
like a mentor and and you know, talk to him and helped, you
know, get him focused back to what he wanted to do in boxing.
Because Ladimir in his day took a couple of rough losses also and knew what
it was like to take that and and kind of be left for dead by
a lot of people. So I'm not surprised that that Vladimir did that for
you and for Anthony Joshua. I got to ask you about this because this
is the one thing about this fight that kind of kind of still kind of
blows my mind. Deontay Wilder is now part of Eddie Hearn's team on the
five on five. You're now with Matchroom at least for this one fight.
Yeah, how weird is that? You know what I mean? How weird
is that it is? It is? It is very weird. But when
you understand business, you know, business is business, and we know to
you know, be in business, you know, bringing certain people together.
But at the end of the day, I have to get all the credit
to his clussy, you know. And I think, you know, it's
just like Queensberry and and Naturroom working together. They're they're they're the enemies,
you know what I'm saying. They don't like each other. But but the
Saudis have brought everyone to Yeah, you understand me. And it's been a
beautiful thing just being in there having meetings with everybody, just going there and
like, gods, what the hell are y'all doing? Y'all? These are
boxing, you know, y'all y'all allowing the best whites of our lives and
in the faces watching lives just just fade away. Like why are y'all not
working with each other? He asked me, why why are you only fighting
once a year? And all you shaid me fighting more and more more and
something you know, everybody have dread, you know, and it's and I'm
so happy that they came part. Always tell uh A Turkey that I appreciate
him for coming into boxing, not because of just the promotion and what we're
doing, but just to bringing people together, you know, people that just
working together. The to never ever worked with each other in the lifetime if
they didn't come in. So it's a lot of things that's going on that
I'm not gonna say. But one thing I can't say is I give out
a credit to those guys. They're the one made all this possible. After
this, after this, who knows what happens, you know what I mean,
you know, it just goes. But at this moment in time,
I'm gonna enjoy it. I'm gonna soak it all up. I'm the uh,
you know, the captain of the team. Not only I'm a part
of it, but it may be captain. They got their team. I
was just gonna say that. That's crazy to me. Uh, you know,
it's it's a beautiful it's a beautiful a beautiful time in boxing, you
know. Right now. I hope it continues to stay alive for the future
of things, and we're going to see how these things plays out. But
I'm very excited to be a part of the the five on the five and
you know, and to be working with different, different guys in the business.
That's why I kept my open as a free agent, because I've always
wanted to work with you know, different people, you know, and in
boxing, we just have too many, too many people that their whole grudge
is it and don't like each other. And so if I don't like you,
I'm not gonna work with you. But that shouldn't be part of the
fighter's fault. You know. The fighters just want to fight because we want
to make money and we want to see who's the best. And so you
know, the relationship that other promoters have with other promoters and so on and
so on, that has nothing to do with us. So, you know,
I make the stand because no everyone knows how I feel about Eddie and
stuff like that. When I took the stadium, I mean, you know,
and I mean, let's try this out. Let's see how these goals.
And here we are now. So I'm excited, you know, you
know, overall I'm excited and and I can't I can't wait for the junior
person. Well, thank you very much for your time. I certainly wish
you nothing but the best of luck. June. First, I think it's
gonna be a very interesting fight. Uh, Like you said, the Bronze
Bomber against the Big Bang. I guess we're gonna see a knockout. I
would think before we wrap up, you think we're gonna see a knockout in
this fight either way? Oh man, Oh that's for sure. I don't
see it no other way. You know, you got the bronze bamba with
the biggest and in the mild pinion, A lot of opinions the best right
here in big boxing history against big bangs, ain't. I mean it's a
big bangs again. I love that, love that. And you got too
heavy, too heavy punches in there. I don't. I don't see how
this fight is gonna go to ave round without someone getting knocked out. So
you know, I love being in these fights. You know. I love
being in the fights where somebody gonna get knocked out, you know. And
because I understand we're in the heavy division, that's what people want to see,
entertainment, excitement at the big knockout, so you know, but you
know, I'm coming to do all the knockout that's for sure. And and
and and the advance my career and to becoming uh getting those types of things.
That's my main mission right now. And I'm looking forward to it.
Like I said, you know, and all the man's watching it's important,
that's for sure, this time around. Deontay Wilder's bad and I'm gonna improve
that. I'm not just saying it. I'm done impletely. I think we
can leave it there, Dante uh Well said, I thank you for your
time once again, and I wish you nothing but the best in the fight.
Yes, sir, I appreciate today and I hope you up the beauty
for the rest of the day. You bet, Thank you, Dada,
Hey care than bigging bes.