Wilder: It’s scary leaving a fight up to the judges
Deontay Wilder has only gone to the cards twice in his career, and he’s not looking to do it again any time soon.
On the choice of judges and referee for the fight
“I just hope they choose the right people that’s certified for such a huge event like this. We can’t have mediocre judges, we can’t have mediocre refs. Some of the judges that have put their names in, they gotta understand that; if you don’t have the credentials for this type of fight, you have to sit back and still learn. There’s a lot of of mistakes that can be made. For a fight of this significance, you gotta have the right people.
“I think they’re gonna choose the right people. I don’t really worry too much about the judges and referee. I just think about what I’m supposed to do, my abilities, what I’m capable of doing. I will display that on the night. I don’t worry about that.
“If it leads to a decision, you’re gonna hope for the best. All fighters get nervous! No matter if they feel like they won all the rounds or what. You can knock a guy down, your corner can tell you one thing, you can feel it, and then we’ve seen it goes the opposite way. It’s always scary leaving it up to the judges. You never know what they saw. You never want to leave it to them.”
On possibly targeting Tyson Fury’s cut from the Otto Wallin fight
“It could be a very big problem for him. We all know in boxing, when Wallin opened up that cut like that, it was supposed to be stopped. But we know they didn’t stop it because of this moment right now. It was best for boxing. When you have a cut that damn near covers your whole eyebrow, and it’s oozing out, you’ve got half flesh and half face, it’s not good. When you have a fighter like myself, so powerful and so dangerous, I’m thinking about if that cut opens up, what’s gonna happen?
“That’s why you need the right referees and things like that. In our hearts, as a warrior, we’re always gonna say we can carry on. But we gotta look at what’s gonna be beneficial for our health. Last year we had three guys pass away, and I guarantee you if they were alive now, they wouldn’t change nothing, they would keep going, because they’re warriors! That’s our mentality! We say we’ll die in the ring! ... I’m just speaking on a warrior mindset and a warrior mentality. We wanna be the best we can be in the ring and get a great fight. Not too many people in the world can do what we do.”