The former WBC Deontay Wilder champion is one of the leading names of the American boxing village, who was once expected to be the “Mike Tyson” of heavy. Wilder has held the WBC belt since 2015 with 10 successful belt protection.
However, before the opportunity to unify any more heavy championship, Wilder lost the belt to Tyson Fury in their rematch in 2020. On October 10, the third match will be the last chance for Deontay Wilder to regain the championship against Fury.
1. Deontay Wilder – The son of the teacher
Deontay Leshun Wilder was born on October 22, 1985 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. He is the second son of Mr. Gary Wilder and Deborah Wilder. Wilder has 3 sisters and a younger brother – Marsylo Wilder's younger brother is also a professional puncher.
Deontay Wilder's father and grandmother are all the preachers (Preacher) for the local Catholic community.
Deontay himself also believed in God – he once asserted that “God appears in every most important moment of my life”, even saying that his appearance in the boxing arena “is God arranged”. At least 14 tattoos on Wilder are symbolic images of Christianity.
Although I admit that my younger day was “not bored with anyone”, at first Deontay Wilder had nothing to do with the practice of boxing.
In his youth, he and his friends were mostly basketball and rugby – even Wilder also wanted to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide home team.
Deontay Wilder once said he had 8 children, but he rarely revealed any private information about them. The public only knew Wilder had his first daughter Naeyya with his girlfriend Helen Duncan; Two daughters, a son with ex-wife Jessica Scales-Wilder; And just had a girl Kaorii Lee and former model Terri Swift.
2. The first steps on the boxing floor
The turning point came to Deontay Wilder at the age of 19, when his girlfriend, Helen Duncan, told Wilder that she was pregnant.
The Wilder family was not rich, and at Alabama, the expenditure to finish college was a huge number. Wilder decided to drop out of school, then started working to prepare for his children – there was a time when Wilder made up to 3, 4 different jobs of the day, from serving table to beer drivers.
But then Deontay Wilder had to be dumbfounded when he knew his first daughter, Naeyya, had a birth defect in Spina Bifida. She faces the risk of polio and hydrocephalus as soon as she first was born.
Even somewhat help from the family, the salary of a barrel will never be enough for Deontay Wilder to pay off the hospital fee invoice.
So Wilder made a decision to change his life forever – he arranged to start the boxing practice. Dazzling at the huge numbers that the boxers earned whenever the radio, Wilder expected that the height of 2m01 and the good physical body would help him earn three income when walking on the stage.
Ragging to make money, Deontay Wilder rushed into training to be able to fight professionally as soon as possible. Just in contact with the boxing for a few weeks, Wilder has practiced professional boxers, even successfully defeated Knockout a experienced puncher right in the first Sparring.
“In that match, Deontay performed quite awkwardly,” Wilder's coach, Mr. Jay Deas, recounted. “Hands and legs do not eat, just know how to punch. That's right, he has not learned how many techniques.”
“But when Wilder hit the right punch, the heavy fist had collapsed. I remember then he crawled up, smiled brightly at me and told me that I absolutely should not miss the super seed Deontay Wilder.”
3. Olympic and professional boxing floor
Before Deontay Wilder, US soil for a long time did not bloom in the heavyweight boxing village. After the era of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, the championships flying to Europe, still in the hands of the Klitschko brothers for more than a decade.
So after receiving Deontay Wilder as a student, coach Jay Deas has a lot of expectations in young talents. Jay Deas opened Wilder a bigger context – he wanted Deontay Wilder to have a achievement at the Olympic Games before becoming a professional puncher, like the way that Muhammad Ali or Evander Holyfield used to go.
Wilder was not very satisfied with his achievements at that time – he won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, losing to the Italian opponent Clemente Russo. After experience with the Olympic Games, Deontay Wilder decided not to participate in the second Olympic season, but would be professional in November 2008.
Since then, the whole world has been horrified by the performance of Deontay Wilder's opponent.
Starting from the first opponent Ethan Cox to the 43rd opponent Tyson Fury, except for the first match with Bermane Stivere winning points and a draw, a defeat when facing Tyson Fury, Wilder all won the remaining matches with Knockout / Knockout Technical, with 41 victories over 42 matches.
Worth mentioning more, 18 matches of them did not even last through the first half.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hfy0ksjmdo
“I promised my daughter (Naeyya) that I would become a world champion when she was one year old,” Deontay Wilder recounted, saying he had tattooed the WBC belt on his right thigh.
“When I agreed on the entire heavyweight, I would tattoo all the championships I had to my thighs. It was my biggest goal – becoming absolute champion.”