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By: Hans Themistode
Since suffering a brutal loss in his last ring appearance at the hands of Tyson Fury, the normally loquacious Deontay Wilder had been uncharacteristically quiet.
That however, changed when the former WBC heavyweight titlist dropped a bombshell on the boxing world. During a video that was posted on Wilder’s social media accounts, the Alabama native stood before a camera in a dark room and began castigating Fury, his former co trainer Mark Breland and referee Kenny Bayless.
On the night in question, Wilder was thoroughly beaten down by Fury. He found himself on the canvas on several occasions which ultimately led to his stoppage defeat in the seventh round. After hearing Wilder’s claims, 88 year old Bob Arum believes that it’s absolutely bull shit from top to bottom.
“We haven’t heard a lot from Wilder so he’s been watching television. All I can say about his Instagram post is that he’s mimicking Donald Trump. In other words, he’s lying and come up with conspiracy theories, other than putting the blame on yourself.”
Arum, of course, had first row seats to witness his British heavyweight titlist dish out the beating of a lifetime to Wilder on February 22nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. At no point did Wilder appear to be fully in the contest. Fury came out aggressive in the opening rounds. The results came in the form of two knockdowns in the third and fifth rounds. As Wilder’s team sat back and watched their man take big shot after big shot, assistant trainer and former welterweight champion Mark Breland couldn’t stomach it any longer and threw in the white towel.
Noticing his defeat enraged Wilder to no end and the Alabama product finally split ways with him due to his decision. Arum seemed to take extreme offense to Wilder when he began bad mouthing both his now ex trainer and the referee in charge.
Instead of admonishing them, Arum believes the former champ should be singing their praises.
“For him to castigate Kenny Bayless the referee and Mark Breland, his chief cornerman is disgraceful,” said Arum during an interview with IFL TV. “They acted properly and saved Wilder’s life. He was completely out of it and was getting thrashed by Tyson Fury.”
Other than pointing a blaming finger in the direction of his corner, Wilder turned his attention to Fury. The surly knockout artist ranted on about the damage in which he was able to inflict which included the swelling of his face and perforating his eardrums. Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) showed numerous videos which he believes proves that Fury did in fact have an illegal object on the inside of his gloves.
An already irritated Arum shook his head at those claims as well.
“To talk about the gloves the way he did was disgraceful. You have to understand the situation with the gloves in the state of Nevada where the fight took place. The day before the fight at the weigh-ins the gloves are presented to the commission who inspects the gloves.
“Each side then examines the gloves and each fighter picks a pair of gloves that they are going to use in the fight. They also choose a second pair in case something happens to the gloves in the fight that they can use. Then the gloves are secured by the commission and they are kept in a safe place so that no one can tamper with them. On the night of the fight, a commission brings the gloves that each fighter has signed their names on to the respective fighter who has already put on their approved hand wraps. Then, the gloves are put on in the presence of the inspector who bought the gloves and the inspector who is assigned to the room. Nobody, nobody can tamper with the gloves.”
While the long time promoter, continues to fire back at every single one of Wilder’s claims, he believes the recently turned 35 year old simply can’t come to grips with how badly he was beaten on the night.
“What he has done is taken something out of a movie,” explained Arum. “That probably used to happen maybe in the 30s and 40s and he’s using that as a conspiracy to explain how he got so decisively beaten by Tyson Fury. What Wilder said is a sham. It’s a Donald Trump kind of sham.”
