On Saturday night, Deontay Wilder suffered the fourth loss of his career, a fifth-round TKO at the hands of Zhilei Zhang.
Many were concerned about Wilder taking the fight as Zhang outweighed him by almost 70 pounds (282.8 to 214.6, respectively) and the former heavyweight champion never resembled prime Wilder after the brutal Wilder-Tyson Fury trilogy.
In the first round, those worries came to fruition when Zhang stunned Wilder with a short right hook before ending the night for a disoriented Wilder with a powerful right hook.
After the fight was stopped, boxing fans took to social media to render one verdict.
Deontay Wilder should retire.
The 38-year-old Tuscaloosa, AL native made his pro debut in November 2008 at 23 after winning an Olympic bronze medal roughly three months before at the Beijing Games.
More impressive is that he only started boxing only three years prior to medaling in the 2008 Summer Games.
And even more significant is his reason for getting into the sport which was to take care of his daughter, who was born with spina bifida.
But a driven Wilder quickly ascended the amateur ranks, winning the Golden Gloves and the U.S. Championship before ultimately making the U.S. Olympic team.
After winning his pro debut, the newly anointed “Bronze Bomber” went on a tear over the next seven years, impressing fans with his power and knocking out 28 opponents en route to an unblemished 32-0 record.
On January 17th, 2015, Wilder got his chance at a world heavyweight title when he fought Bermane Stiverne for the WBC belt in Las Vegas. Wilder dominated Stiverne and won by unanimous decision, making him the first US-born world heavyweight champion since 2007 (Shannon Briggs, WBO title) and ending the longest American heavyweight champion drought in boxing history.
Wilder retained the title for the next five years as his right hand carved up a swath of nine devastating KOs. Even Tyson Fury went down twice to his right haymaker during their first fight in 2018, which ended in a controversial draw.
Wilder also helped revive the heavyweight division, which lost its luster to the welterweights and lightweights.
When he fought for the first time in Brooklyn, tough NY fans wanted to see if the WBC Champion was the real deal. His opponent, Polish fighter Artur Szpilka attracted a large crowd of red and white clad fans. As the fight progressed, many thought the challenger was winning, especially after stunning Wilder in the mid-rounds.
But just when questions about his talent started circulating, Wilder unleashed a vicious right cross with 45 seconds left in the ninth round that laid Szpilka out cold.
At that moment, on January 16th, 2016, in New York City, Wilder officially arrived.
Some still had reservations, wondering if he was tough enough to defend his title or make it to the championship rounds. He silenced those doubts six months later in his fight against Chris Arreola. During the fight, Wilder broke his right hand and tore his right bicep yet valiantly fought on basically using only his left hand until the bout was stopped after the eighth round and the champ remained undefeated.
After recovering from surgery, Wilder returned to his knockout ways, with three straight KO wins against Gerald Washington, Stiverne again (who had no business being in the ring that night) and Luis Ortiz.
After the draw against Fury, a fight which many thought Wilder won, especially after he knocked Fury down twice, Wilder snatched Dominic Breazeale’s soul like a Tom and Jerry cartoon with a lethal, right-handed haymaker with 56 seconds left in the first round at Barclays. He followed that up six months later with another KO of Ortiz before suffering back-to-back knockout losses to Fury, after which the rumblings about his future began.
But he took two more fights, going 1-1, before losing to Zhang this past weekend.
Wilder proved his toughness by refusing to quit against Fury in their final fight. He was knocked down twice, knocked Fury down twice and fought until the 11th round when Fury knocked him down for a third and final time.
The one thing I feel Wilder never fully proved was that he had more than a right hand. At 6’6, he should have thrown his jab much more than he did. Against Arreola, he proved he could do damage with it, yet he failed to use it consistently.
Outside of the ring, Wilder was one of the nicest fighters in the sport. I have interviewed and spoken with him many times and was one of the first to produce a full feature on the rising heavyweight and he was always courteous and friendly.
The biggest void in Wilder’s impressive career is the absence of a fight with Anthony Joshua. I’ve always felt that Eddie Hearn feared Wilder’s devastating power and didn’t want to expose Joshua’s suspect chin before he could build AJ into a global star. Andy Ruiz took care of that in their first fight, but that should have been Wilder’s fight.
Hopefully, Wilder retires before he suffers any serious damage. He’s in good shape, made good money and cemented his legacy in the sport.
If he does retire, I hope that everyone celebrates him for all that he accomplished and gives him the proper respect he deserves as a champion who not only gave America a heavyweight champion again but who also helped reinvigorate a division that languished after the days of Tyson, Holyfield and Lewis.
Most of all, I hope everyone recognizes Deontay Wilder as a caring father who took up boxing late in life to care for his daughter and rose to become an Olympic medalist and world champion who took care of his entire family.
