Just a week after news came out about how former heavyweight king Mike Tyson is to open a cannabis ranch in Death Valley, comes a 60-day community service sentence for reigning WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder due to his possession of marijuana. Wilder, who was pulled over in his tinted-windowed car back in June, has been sentenced to carry out his 60 hours at a local YMCA, reports say.
Wilder, unbeaten at 39-0(38) and closing in on big fights against Luis Ortiz and, we hope, Anthony Joshua, was arrested in Alabama last summer. Yesterday, his lawyer Paul Patterson said, “We respect the court’s ruling. Of course we were hoping a dismissal would be granted.”
But Patterson says the marijuana did not actually belong to his client. Apparently Wilder, who owns a large number of cars, was out of town for a period of time and while he was away someone in his employ used the car. “All in all it’s a lesson learned for Mr. Wilder not to leave his many vehicles in the care and custody of numerous people or allow them to use them while he is out of town,” Patterson said.
All in all this will not affect Wilder’s career and chances are no-one will even remember this incident in a year or two. Unless Wilder gets arrested for possessing marijuana again, that is. The recreational drug is legal in some states in the US, but not in Alabama.
Wilder must get those 60 hours dealt with and then he can concentrate on the supposedly upcoming fight with Cuban southpaw Ortiz. Still to be finalised and/or announced officially, this fight could well prove to be a great one; as well as the toughest yet in the career of the KO King known as “The Bronze Bomber.”
Wilder has of course been a clean athlete his entire career, whereas Ortiz twice tested positive for a banned substance – both post and pre-fight. There is perhaps an irony here, with Wilder getting busted for drug possession (a recreational drug) before his fight against a fighter who is, in the eyes of many fans, a two-time drugs cheat himself.
Leave it to Wilder to sort it all out in the ring if and when this fight comes around.
