Deontay Wilder will not be retiring from the sport and has no plans yet to attend the forthcoming Riyadh Season fights – World Boxing News can exclusively reveal.
WBN connected with Wilder’s co-manager, Shelly Finkel, this week to divulge any fight plans in the pipeline for the ex-world heavyweight champion.
Speculation is rife that Wilder could walk away following a loss to Joseph Parker. However, Finkel assured fans that the knockout puncher is returning.
“Deontay will fight again and has no plans to retire,” Finkel told WBN exclusively. “He will fight again, but we have no specific fight yet and are looking at what’s next.”
Asked whether Wilder will attend the February 17 undisputed heavyweight title fight or March 8’s offering featuring arch-rival Anthony Joshua, Finkel replied: “At present, there are no plans for him to go to either Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk or AJ vs Francis Ngannou, but you never know that could change in the future.”
Wilder cannot afford to wait too long to get back in the top division picture. As the last undisputed champion, Lennox Lewis, recently stated, Wilder needs to be active.
Going into his loss to Parker, the Tuscaloosa native spent less than three minutes in the ring over two years and had mentioned he could retire.
Lewis says remaining out of action cost Wilder what should have been a victory over Parker to set up a lucrative fight with Joshua.
“I didn’t think he was going to step in the ring again,” Lewis told Ring Magazine. “When he took this fight, he had one round in two years against Robert Helenius. That didn’t really show anything. It actually did him more harm because he needed the work in that fight. Suddenly, he’s come to a big fight [against Parker on December 23].
“I think his business mind took it because he was not prepared for Parker. He was not [prepared], even with a warm-up fight. He said he’s not going to be rusty. But he’s not Houdini. Everybody gets rusty. What he’s saying didn’t compute to me.”
Parker took a wide unanimous decision to end hopes of Wilder vs Joshua despite a seven-year wait. The fight could be resurrected as Turki Alalshikh still desires to stage the blockbuster in Saudi Arabia.
However, Wilder has to win within the next three months to get back on the horse. Should Joshua beat Ngannou on March 8, the Wilder may be salvaged for the summer.
A lot depends on whether Fury vs Usyk becomes a two-fight saga with an active two-way rematch clause.
Phil Jay is an experienced boxing news writer and has been the Editor of World Boxing News since 2010.
