Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s mother, Deborah Wilder, is calling for her son to retire from the sport after his fifth-round knockout defeat to Zhilei Zhang last Saturday night in the ‘5 vs. 5’ tourney in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Declining Performance
Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) was never at any moment in the fight competitive against the 41-year-old Zhang and left himself wide open to a right-hand counter in the fifth when he threw a shot while he was on the move with his feet not set.
The 38-year-old Deontay’s defeat was his fourth in his last five fights since 2020, making it clear that he needs to call it a day.
Wilder hasn’t come out publicly to say whether he’ll step away from the game to retire as he’d repeatedly said he would do during the build-up to the fight.
What’s unclear is whether the ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder was talking about retirement to get boxing fans more interested in his fight with ‘Big Bang’ Zhang or if he was serious.
Mother’s Plea
“I texted him and said, ‘Son, we’re having a party for you. You gave us the best boxing in the USA when boxing was dead. You’ve gotten older. You’ve ran your course in your journey. It’s time to celebrate. Enjoy your life now. Teach other young men how to become a champion,” said Deontay’s mother, Deborah Wilder, to USA Today.
If Wilder does choose to continue his career, he needs to consider firing his trainer, Malik Scott and finding someone who can return him to his old style of fighting.
Wilder’s fighting style in his four fights since bringing Scott on board in 2021 hasn’t worked for him, as he’s gone 1-3 under his watch. Scott’s fiddling with Wilder’s style and trying to transform him into a boxer have been miserable failures, and it’s now obvious that it was a mistake to change what had brought him success.
Financial Implications
At this point, Wilder will likely need to agree to smaller paydays because he’s not likely to continue getting the big money he’d gotten while his career was still humming along.
That’ll be a bitter pill for Wilder to swallow because he’s been making good money during the last six years of his career, but he’s performing too poorly now to justify one of the promoters giving him big money.