By Jake Donovan
Some fighters claim ‘People’s Champion’ status just because it’s the thing to say. Deontay Wilder has always been a man of the people. Now that he’s a champion these days, he too gets to claim the aforementioned title. Only in his case, he truly means it.
It’s why, barely three weeks after manhandling Bermane Stiverne to claim a heavyweight belt in Vegas, Wilder was found taking in a night of action at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Missisippi. His presence wasn’t at all a publicity stunt, although ESPN2 – which aired the show as part of its Friday Night Fights series – used the opportunity for an on-air interview.
Wilder (33-0, 32KOs) was on hand for nearly the entire marathon 12-fight card, sticking around through the end of the show and then well after that, posing for pictures with fans, granting all interview requests, and – other than his standing a massive 6’7” – never once coming across a man with the sense he was above his crowd.
“I like to be among the people. I get a love from the south and I love them as well,” Wilder said of his time in the gambling capital of the Deep South, which is roughly a four-hour trek from his hometown in college football-crazed Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Taking in the card was just the latest public setting in which the unbeaten heavyweight titlist was found. A parade was recently held in Tuscaloosa in his honor, celebrating his recent win over Stiverne, and giving him the key to the city.
Outside of his bringing a heavyweight crown to Alabama—or anywhere in the South, for that matter—Wilder took the event as a chance to reconnect with his hometown fans, and merely as the first of plenty more to come.
It was the same mentality he carried when coming home from Beijing with a Bronze medal around his neck. Wilder was the least experienced member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic boxing squad, but the only male boxer on the team to bring home hardware.
Some have claimed that a relatively quick path to the medal stage had more to do with Wilder’s success than necessarily boasting the talent to suggest more good fortunes to come.
That same mindset led many to believe that the early years of his pro career – some even believing all the way up to his fight with Stiverne – were similarly a mirage. It didn’t matter that he kept winning as he gradually upgraded the competition. The focal point heading into his first career title fight was that he hadn’t been tested, and that a title fight at this point was too much too soon.
Wilder not only proved the critics wrong, but did so in a manner in which nobody expected – himself included, at least to a certain degree.
“The only thing that didn't go as expected was the knockout not happening,” Wilder says of the January 17 title win that has forever changed his career and the manner in which it’s now viewed. “But you know what - going 12 rounds was the best thing that ever happened to my career.
“Even if I never go 12 rounds again in my entire career, going 12 rounds in that moment at that particular time is the best thing that can happen to my career. 32 wins all by knockout, nobody going past four rounds. People brought that down to, "Can he go past four rounds?" That night, I gave the fans everything. I did everything and had fun with it. I did all of the hard work in the gym. When it's time to fight, that's the easy part. That's the fun part.”
That part has always been Wilder, who¬¬¬–even when faced with life’s harshest adversity–has always found a way to rise above the fray. When his daughter Naieya was born with a rare spinal condition, Wilder changed career intentions from pursuing a run as a college football or basketball player—having excelled in both sports during high school—to chase after a different dream.
“Most people, they have jobs that they have to do. Since God blessed me with a job that I love to do—because it can easily be on the other end for me— it feels great,” Wilder insists. “It means that if I can dedicate myself 110% I can jump through any hoop and overcome any obstacle.
“I tell people all the time that I know the man who can make the impossible, possible. That's my lord and savior Jesus Christ.”
Winning the title is one thing, and it’s certainly come with its share of newfound glory for Wilder.
However, there is still plenty of work to be done. Wilder is confident that he can beat any of today’s heavyweight, but smart enough to know that he has at least one more to beat to claiming top honors.
“(World heavyweight champ Wladimir) Klitschko will be the overall 'see if he’s the real deal, this is the real champion fight for me,” Wilder firmly believes. “That fight is labeled not an if fight, but when it will happen. It won’t be years and years dragged out, but WILL happen to unify the division.
“It was a long time since anyone unified all of the titles; I want to be there to bring back that history for the heavyweight division. I have all of the potential, the total package to do it and bring it back.”
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
