2807664, Welp Deontay Wilder got his last check. Posted by Boogie Stimuli, Sun Jun-02-24 08:38 AM
He got KO'd in the 5th round yesterday by 41 yr old Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang. Zhang is a puncher with good IQ, so there's no shame in it. He had more amateur success than Wilder as well, so it wasn't AT ALL surprising (I picked Zhang to win by stoppage). Wilder has been an overachiever. He started boxing very late in life and went on to win an Olympic Bronze medal. Got into boxing to make money for his daughter's medical condition and made plenty of it, thanks to Al Haymon and the PBC diet that constantly fed him opponents who were tailor made for him. Eventually, he began to feel he was invincible and wanted to fight Fury. Even after defeat, he couldn't face his limitations or failures and fired the trainer who got him where he was along with publicly disparaging the man and accusing him of foul play. He's only gone downhill from there. His punch output and aggression is lacking to the point that he lost a decision to Joseph Parker without putting up a fight. Now he get stopped by Zhang and is ready to hang it up. Hey, the guy brought up plenty excitement and did more than he should have. Salute. I hope he enjoys retirement. This isn't the sport to continue in dispassionately.
On another note, this was another incredible card, made possible by Turki Alalshikh. It was a 5 vs 5 Matchroom vs Queensbury card, and Queensbury swept Matchroom (Wilder signed to Matchroom for this fight). Raymond Ford was Nick Ball was the only arguable decision, but it wasn't necessarily a robbery. Daniel Dubois upset Filip Hrgovic by stoppage in the 8th, as everyone expected Hrgovic to win easily.
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