Just days after suffering his first career defeat against Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder has confirmed his intentions to trigger his rematch clause against Fury.
During their bout in Las Vegas over the weekend, Fury was able to regain his status as world champion after Wilder’s team threw in the towel in what transpired to be a one-sided match-up.
Now, Deontay Wilder has expressed his plans for yet another rematch with Fury to win back his titles, making it the pair’s third fight in 19 months. The two fighters will have until July of this year to organise the rematch.
As well as confirming his intention to activate the rematch clause, which must be done within 30 days of the fight they had over the weekend, Wilder also blamed his three-stone walk-in outfit for the loss, which he wore in honour of Black History Month in the U.S.
“He didn’t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is … that my uniform was way too heavy for me,” Wilder said when speaking to Yahoo Sports. “I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight.
“In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through. But I’m a warrior and people know that I’m a warrior. It could easily be told that I didn’t have legs or anything.
“A lot of people were telling me, ‘It looked like something was wrong with you.’ Something was, but when you’re in the ring, you have to bluff a lot of things. I tried my best to do so. I knew I didn’t have the legs because of my uniform.
“I was only able to put it on (for the first time) the night before, but I didn’t think it was going to be that heavy. It weighed 40, 40-some pounds with the helmet and all the batteries. I wanted my tribute to be great for Black History Month. I wanted it to be good and I guess I put that before anything.”