Off the back of his December 23rd loss to Joseph Parker, former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder made some derisory comments in regards to his preparation for his non-title bout against Parker, providing several explanations as to why he lost including the time and frequency of traveling from and to Saudi Arabia.
Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KO’s) was recently interviewed by boxing reporter Ellie Sekbach from ESNEWS where he virtually played off his loss to Joseph Parker (34-3, 24 KO’s) due to a multitude of problems he alleged in the build-up, and his inactivity following his win over Robert Helenius (32-5, 21 KO’s) in October of 2022.
“For me to be out of the ring for almost two years with just one round against somebody [Joseph Parker] who has been consistently fighting―and he really didn’t do nothing, that tells you a lot,” Wilder told ESNEWS.
“That’s just the beginning of what I’m capable of doing with less than three weeks to train. And even in [during] the training of that, I had to travel two times―that was twenty hours of traveling, and those guys [other fighters on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card] was already in Europe. They were only two or three hours away. I had to go ten to twelve hours back [and forth] with the whole trip.“
Though Wilder attributed his loss to a lack of preparation time, citing he had less than three weeks for his December 23rd fight, it was Matchroom chairman and Anthony Joshua’s (27-3, 24 KO’s) promoter, Eddie Hearn, was one of the first to confirm that each fighter had approximately six weeks to prepare.
Wilder’s assertion that he had around ten to twelve hours to travel to and from Saudi Arabia appears to be factual, and compared to many of the other European-based boxers on the card, traveling to Saudi Arabia from the United States would be twice as long as most of the other fighters. However, Joseph Parker highlighted the importance of scheduling and being a professional to find a way to plan travel times accordingly.
“I don’t know where he’s coming from but I do know that he did travel back and forth.” Parker admitted to IFL TV in response to Wilder’s complaints.
“We had to do the promotion, and we had to do the dressing like zombies and make-up and everything, and it was a lot of time traveling,” Joseph Parker said, referring to the commercial that the fighters on the December 23rd ‘Day of Reckoning’ card participated in.
“I know that when I traveled to Saudi for the fight, it took me a while to adjust to the Saudi time, so traveling around and jet lag is a real thing, but I guess as a professional fighter―and you have a team around you; you have to make the right decisions of when you have to be there, and allow yourself the time to adjust and get used to the time zone wherever you’re fighting.“
As Joseph Parker mentioned, every fighter on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card had to similarly travel back and forth from and to Saudi Arabia, and they were likely subject to the same drawbacks of traveling as Wilder. While Wilder did comment about needing more time to travel, Parker also illustrated that each fighter had a team, and that professional fighters are supposed to schedule their travel times accordingly in collaboration with their teams.
It ultimately fell to Wilder’s team to ensure he was in the best condition possible, which would require him to make sacrifices such as arriving earlier in Saudi Arabia or finding a place to hold his training camp in that was closer to the country he would be fighting in.
Deontay Wilder’s statements seem to more so accentuate the lack of preparation by his own team―his coaches/trainers―and management who are expected to ensure Wilder is in the best shape and as well-prepared as possible.
Traveling is also a common practice for amateur boxers, thus it stands to reason that Wilder―as a former amateur boxer himself―would have some knowledge regarding the negative impact traveling would have, yet it appears he was incapable of drawing on his own experience from, at the very least, his participation in the 2008 Beijing Olympics which would have required Wilder to travel for even longer.
Generally speaking, these issues tend to be common for professional boxers who fight outside of their home country, but it is unlikely these issues affected Wilder’s eventual defeat to Parker as they are merely a part of the sport and can be circumvented through appropriate scheduling and preparation.
