As fight fans learned a long time ago, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder talks a lot. A whole lot. All the time. On a number of subjects, plenty of them controversial in nature, Wilder is wholly unafraid of holding his swift tongue. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is of course down to the listener (and it sure is tough ignoring Wilder; as it is a hard job tuning out rival heavyweight champ Tyson Fury).
But Wilder, aside from his well documented – and quite unnecessary – death threats aimed at Saturday’s foe Dominic Breazeale, has spoken about the ongoing problem his chosen sport has with drugs; as in Performance Enhancing Drugs. Speaking with BBC Sport, the unbeaten power-puncher said he knew all along that Jarrell Miller (he who screwed up his $6 mil fight with Anthony Joshua) “was doing some things.” And Wilder added how “the sad part about it is he ain’t the only one.”
“These guys, they think they are smart. They try to play the system because when one drug cheat gets caught there is another one behind it that’s getting created that we don’t have the technology to detect,” Wilder told BBC’s World Service. “And it’s a lot of fighters that’s on it. I know the doctors that do it to them. It’s just a shame that it’s involved in boxing. Such a brutal sport.”
Now, as much sense as Wilder makes here; as this ongoing and seemingly endless drug issue is THE biggest problem facing boxing right now (and wouldn’t you love to see Wilder name and shame the doctors he knows!) – a fight fan might ask, what about Wilder’s younger brother, Marsellos; who failed a drugs test of his own quite recently (and what happened with that whole story? It’s gone kinda quiet, ain’t it?).
But though Deontay didn’t go there, he did refer to his recent outlandish talk of wanting to kill an opponent. Wilder says this is nothing compared to taking drugs and cheating to win.
“It’s one thing about my words,” Wilder said. “But it’s another thing about my actions. But when you get guys who are putting things into their body. To enhance their body to do something that it’s not meant to do. Putting certain drugs that give rats cancer and give you stamina to do certain things. Their actions are speaking louder than words.”
You can agree with Wilder here, and catch on to what he’s suggesting could happen one day: a drug cheat in boxing either seriously injures an opponent, or worse. When he talks like this, and he propagates a clean sport to do his stuff in, Wilder doesn’t come across as such a bad guy, does he.
Let’s just hope no more big names test positive for something nasty any time soon. Or ever again (in an ideal world).
