Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder 42-1-1 (41) says he is primed to regain the title when he takes on old rival Tyson Fury 30-0-1 (21) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
The 35-year-old American will be having his third fight against Fury. Their first bout in Los Angeles in December 2018 ended in a controversial draw. Brit Fury, 33, convincing won the rematch when he stopped Wilder in seven one-sided frames in February last year.
“I don’t have anything to prove,” Wilder said. “I’m in a great place and in a great state of mind. I have a lot of great people around me. This fight is about redemption, retaliation and retribution.
“We’ve been going from day one since the last fight. There’s been no stop. The delays have been beneficial for us. One thing about this camp is that I’ve had all of my brothers around me who’ve been with me from the start.
“Many people thought I was down and out, but it wouldn’t be fair to the people around me to feel that way. My dedication has been focused every day.
“Overtraining is a real thing and we’ve been able to take small breaks at certain times before getting back at it. Everything has been good and timed out perfectly.
“Saturday night is going to be a different fight. It’s rare that we get trilogies like this and I truly believe this one is going down in history.
“It’s only made me better as a man and as a fighter to see certain things that happened in the second fight. It’s made me even hungrier than before. I needed everything that happened in that fight. It was really a blessing in disguise.
“I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Your legacy only dies when the desire for the sport dies. I’m well alive right now.
“My energy is like my mind, it’s very violent. I’m just ready to go October 9. I’ve dedicated myself and devoted my time and my body, me and my team, to reinventing myself. I’m ready to reintroduce myself to the world.
“Get ready for war. This is going to be an amazing fight on Saturday night. I’m wearing my red outfit because I want it back in blood. I’m looking forward to it.”
Wilder sacked his coach Mark Breland after his loss to Fury, blaming him for stopping the fight too soon when he threw in the towel. Breland was replaced by ex-Wilder opponent Malik Scott.
“I’m a student of the game,” Scott said. “Deontay, in my opinion, ruled the heavyweight division just using one or two weapons. Being in training with him, I used to always say that a lot of his skills weren’t being used. He got content knocking people out with one weapon.
“I went into Deontay’s toolbox and pulled everything out that he did well. I wanted to make sure that we drilled it over and over again. I didn’t teach him anything new. Deontay Wilder can do it all, I just pulled some of those things out of him.
“When it comes to working on Deontay’s fundamentals, he has good fundamentals, he just didn’t always use them. I’m just reminding him about tools that he wasn’t using.”
