World Boxing News looks back at the startling accusations made by Deontay Wilder against Tyson Fury.
After their second fight, two, in particular, were troubling and didn’t sit well before the pair fought again.
Wilder accused Fury and his team of tampering with his water and poisoning him with something to affect his performance. “The Bronze Bomber” also said Fury effectively put his life at risk by attempting to fight with no padding in his gloves.
None of this got discussed in the open during the build-up to the trilogy. Wilder took an oath of silence on the notion, probably to save his reputation.
It worked. As months after their saga ended, nobody seems to be addressing those allegations – not even Fury himself.
Speaking to 78 Sport TV in one of the most shocking interviews of that controversial time, Wilder made his play to the fans.
“My water was tampered with. The feeling I had was a different feeling. It’s like I had no control over my body,” he said.
“My legs were weak, but my mind was very strong. When do you ever see me go down on a body shot? He crushed me.
“When have you ever seen me not be the aggressor. People can say, ‘Oh, it’s [just] excuses.’ But they have never been in a ring, so how would you know.”
Wilder vs Fury accusations
Wilder added on possibly being poisoned, “During the fight, I was under the influence of something. So I didn’t understand why my body was feeling the way it was feeling.
“In the second round, I looked into Fury’s eyes, and I saw disappointment on his face because I wasn’t fading away like he thought I would. Or what they planned that I would.”
Glove-tampering
And then a bare-fisted attempt: “Because he had something in his gloves. I know he did. I had the physical proof in my face, and I have the doctors to prove that as well, so this isn’t something that I am making up.
“We are talking about a guy that can’t punch. In the first fight, he cheated by pulling the gloves down like that. But I wasn’t really paying attention in the first fight.
“But now it makes sense because this time around, even when he hit me in the ear, it wasn’t because he hit me. It busted.
“I had scratches deep on the inside of my ear. How does that happen? Because he had something in the end part of the glove, and he scratched me in it, that’s why it started to bleed.”
In the end, Wilder even blamed his corner before firing Olympic gold medalist Mark Breland.
“Even with the throwing in of the towel, people who know Deontay Wilder know that if I draw my sword, I will live by it and die by it.
“That’s my mentality in the ring. He already had orders not to do that when he did that.”
Whether it’s water under the bridge or letting sleeping dogs lie, Fury and his team could have made a lot more of the way Deontay Wilder handled his first loss.
Wilder vs Fury accusations stopped as soon as the third fight got signed.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
