Immediately following Tyson Fury’s dominant stoppage win over Deontay Wilder last night, the new WBC heavyweight champion made his way to the post-fight presser to discuss what happened in the fight. Check out some excerpts from members of both teams below...
Fury on finally winning the WBC title:
“This belt is the one that’s evaded me over the years and I’ve now finished of my collection, a big, big collection of every belt in boxing...The world was watching and got to see two undefeated heavyweight champions in their prime do battle.
“Deontay Wilder, let me tell you, he never went down easy. I’ve got a lump on the side of me temple here...hit me hard there, but I’ve just had to overcome a lot in this thing tonight and I just always believed that if he couldn’t beat me when I was only 50% the man I am today, then he never had a chance tonight...I can’t wait for the next fight, the rematch hopefully, if he wants it.”
On what he was thinking when he dropped Wilder in Round 3:
“I was pretty pissed because I predicted Round 2. I’ll take Round 3, it was alright.”
On sticking to what he said he was going to do by taking the fight right to Wilder:
“We didn’t mind revealing the game plan — we had nothing to hide! I said what I was gonna do, run across the ring to him, put him on the back foot, and unload big shots on him and I know at 6-foot-9 and 270lbs, if I hit anybody I knock them spark out. I’ve never been the type of boxer to sit down on me punches and let fly. I’ve always been a slick master boxer — jab, move, get out of the way of everything.
“When I made the decision to move from Ben Davison, who did a fantastic job by the way, I done it for a reason, and everybody was like ‘this is a bad move.’ But it worked out for the best and I believed in SugarHill. I believed in the style that he teaches and I knew that we’d get it right on the night. Everything that I did in the ring tonight we practiced in the gym — setting up off the jab and landing the detonation right hand.
“Deontay Wilder is a very tough guy, he took a lot of good rights and I think they done the right thing because it was only a matter of time before he got severely hurt. He was very tired in there.”
Wilder’s trainer Jay Deas on not agreeing with his co-trainer Mark Breland when he threw in the towel:
“Mark threw in the towel, I didn’t think he should’ve. Deontay’s the kind of guy that’s a go out on his shield kind of guy and he will tell you straight up ‘Don’t throw the towel in.’
“And then you’ve always got to consider that Deontay is a fearsome puncher so that’s always a difficult thing because he does always have that shot to land a big shot and turn things around. So that’s what happened there. Deontay is doing well and he’ll be back, he’ll be all the better for it, but congratulations absolutely to Tyson and to his team. Class act all the way around and we’re thrilled to be part of the show with them.”
Shelly Finkel on whether he expects Wilder to take the immediate rematch:
“I didn’t address it now but I have told him many times ‘I don’t expect to die but I’ve had insurance for 50 years.’ You have the rematch (clause) for a reason, no matter what.”
Deas on what injuries Wilder sustained:
“He had a small cut inside the ear, may have affected his equilibrium and so he’s just gonna get a couple of stitches there — that’s really the extent of it. It was a tough grueling fight with a tough grueling fighter and so coming from two fights in a row — November, February — which he loves to be active, but this will give him some time to enjoy things, enjoy his family and rest up a little bit.
“My guess is, knowing him like I do, he will absolutely want to rematch and these guys have put on two tremendous fights already, so I certainly think that the public will want it and I think we’ll want it and I think they’ll want it and so it seems a natural. So I think that’s what you’ll see happen.”
Fury on when he knew for sure that bringing the fight to Wilder would be the right game plan for this rematch:
“Everybody knows I’m a master slick boxer and I can jab and move around the ring for 12 rounds. But that didn’t work last time, I got a draw, and like I said, a draw is a failure to me because all I do is win win win. And this time I wanted the knockout and I think the only way that I could guarantee that I would get a win was the knockout so when me and SugarHill spoke he told me that I would knock him out and I believed in what he said. And also Andy Lee here, he told me that we’d knock him out as well and we worked out game plan in the gym and we put it into practice in the ring.”
On what adjustments he noticed Wilder made from their first fight:
“I felt like Deontay’s jab had improved and he did take his time more like he said he would. He was using his jab quite well actually, I was very impressed with his double jab that he was using and credit to his team for applying that in this fight because when you got two giant guys I think the jab is very important, it sets everything up. So I thought he was definitely an improved fighter to what I fought before, and he was heavier. I wasn’t able to bully him around as I did last time in close because he was a lot heavier than he ever was.”
“I’m my own worst critic, and even though it was a fantastic performance and I got a great win, I know I can do better and I’ve only just started, me and SugarHill with this style. We’ve had seven weeks to perfect a style that takes years at the Kronk Gym in and out. But I’m a quick learner and I aim to get back to work straightaway, work on me balance, work on me straight punches, and we’re gonna be putting people to sleep left, right, and center.”
On Wilder maybe needing some time to lick his wounds and if he’d like to fight Anthony Joshua for the undisputed unification before another rematch:
“Spoils of war have just happened and I need to enjoy this victory. Deontay will need time to recover from the fight but I’m almost sure that he’ll take a rematch because he’s dynamite puncher and at any time he can take somebody out and with that danger you’re always in a fight. So I’m pretty sure we’ll do it again, we’ll run it back again if he wants to. But if he doesn’t want to then these are me promoters and and whatever they wanna do I’m happy with. Whoever’s next will get the same treatment, that’s for sure.”