Deontay Wilder walked away from a second loss to Tyson Fury with his head held high, something he wanted to do but was unable to in the rematch.
That decision getting taken out of his hands by cornerman Mark Breland had a massively detrimental effect on Wilder’s headspace.
Wilder went off on months of accusations and excuses, even against his own team, proving that his mind clearly wasn’t right due to the way he got stopped.
All he wanted to do was go out on his shield. If Fury was going to knock him out and knock him out badly, then so be it.
In the eleventh round of their third and final battle, which was a see-saw affair this time, Fury did just that, and Wilder never complained.
This chain of events ties in with what new coach Malik Scott discussed with WBN’s Dan Rafael earlier this week.
“Deontay made no excuses. Fury won, and life goes on. That’s just how it was. He had no excuses.
“The whole conversation is on to the next. Life goes on. One or two fights, and we’re right back in position and let’s get to work. That’s Deontay’s mentality.”
On what happens now, Scott added: “Deontay said he’s going to go on vacation, and I’m all for that.
“In a few months, we’ll be back in camp, and he’ll be fighting. We should be back in camp, in my opinion, no later than March and fight in May. Or we may be back in camp before March.
“It all depends on how he recovers, how he’s feeling, how everything’s going,” he added.
DEONTAY WILDER TRIGGERED
Not to lay the whole situation on Breland. He is a great and knowledgeable boxing man, but that split decision to save Wilder triggered the reaction.
Without that towel-throwing incident, a whole heap of trash that went into the gap between the second and third bouts may have never existed.
Breland has moved on and even got backed up by five-weight world champion Floyd Mayweather in a recent Instagram post.
Floyd stated: “Please hit the follow button if you want to follow a humble student, teacher, mentor, and coach in the sport of boxing.
“He has all the credentials and qualifications to support why I recognize him as an elite boxing coach. Something that nowadays many unqualified people claim to be.”
They both seem happier now they’ve parted, but it does seem to be a shame that things went so sour between the two friends.
