Wilder not available after fight due to injuries

Following the defeat to the hands of Tyson Fury, former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder did not go through the post-fight media motions Saturday night.

Wilder was initially supposed to go to the hospital following the seventh-round stoppage loss at the MGM Grand Resort & Casino but instead had stitches to fix a cut inside his ear in his dressing room following the fight per a report from Dan Rafael of ESPN.

Deontay Wilder ultimately did not need to go the hospital though it had been announced he would. He did not have an eardrum problem but got a few stitches for a cut inside his ear, Wilder co-manager Shelly Finkel tells ESPN. Wilder was examined and… https://t.co/yZfx6X0Cgo

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) February 23, 2020

Also, from the report, Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel stated that it even took Wilder considerable time to produce a sample for VADA collectors, another reason he did not come to the post-fight news conference.

“Things like this happen,” said Wilder. “The best man won tonight, but my corner threw in the towel, and I was ready to go out on my shield. I had a lot of things going on heading into this fight. It is what it is, but I make no excuses tonight. I just wish my corner would have let me go out on my shield. I’m a warrior. He had a great performance, and we will be back stronger.”

One of the things Wilder mentioned going on into the fight was that he was suffering from a leg injury leading into the match. Wilder’s corner throwing into the towel in the seventh round after seeing him land a counter confused at first to those watching and even a disagreement inside Wilder trainer’s afterward.

“(Wilder co-trainer) Mark (Breland) threw the towel,” Wilder co-trainer Jan Deas explained. “I didn’t think he should’ve. Deontay’s the kind of guy that’s the go-out-on-his-shield kind of guy. He will tell you, straight up, don’t throw the towel in. In fact, in the dressing room, when Tyson was getting his hand wrapped, in one of the earlier fights on the screen which they show in the locker room, they had a guy that got stopped. And we were like, ‘Stop the fight. Stop the fight.’ And right when the ref stopped the fight, the towel came in. And Tyson looked at his people and said, ‘Never,’ like that.

Once referee Kenny Bayless called the fight over, it looked like the right call considering everything that is going inside the ring, which saw Wilder get overmatched by Fury and knocked down twice in the contest.