His black and gold T-shirt was drenched in sweat following a recent open media workout, but its message—‘SPEAK IT, BELIEVE IT, RECEIVE IT’—stayed intact both in visibility and meaning for Deontay Wilder.
It has long been a way of life for the still unbeaten heavyweight titlist, who is brimming with confidence ahead of his Nov. 23 rematch versus Miami’s Luis Ortiz (31-1, 26KOs; 2NCs). Their Fox Sports Pay-Per-View headliner—which airs live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas—comes nearly 21 months after their thrilling March 2018 encounter, where Wilder had to survive a scary 7th round in scoring three knockdowns en route to a 10th round stoppage win.
A lot has changed in the division even if his reign remains intact. The rest of the heavyweight hardware has landed in the hands of Andy Ruiz, who scored one of the biggest upset in a year full of surprises when he recovered from a 3rd round knockdown to stop England’s Anthony Joshua in the 7th round of their June encounter.
Looking back at the pre-fight buildup, the writing was already on the wall.
“That man literally transported those belts to Andy Ruiz. He spoke it into existence and look what happened,” said Wilder (41-0-1, 40KOs) of their final pre-fight press conference, when Joshua (22-1, 21KOs) allowed California’s Ruiz (33-1, 22KOs) to pose with his titles prior to the fight. “I spoke about this before and Joshua, he called it upon himself. He knew he was going to lose one day. [Joshua's] energy gave his belts to [Ruiz].
“Me and Anthony Joshua, we have different mindsets. My mindset is very strong. It's way stronger than him. He had spoken about it. My mindset is different than Anthony Joshua’s. I'm a totally different king. I'm a totally different beast. I'm the best in the world and I prove it each and every time I go in the ring.”
Wilder most recently proved it two weeks prior to Ruiz’ aforementioned major upset, when the 6’7” fighting pride of Tuscaloosa, Alabama scored a highlight reel 1st round knockout of mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale. The win marked the 9th successful title defense for the unbeaten 34-year old, but training for his rematch with Ortiz like a man who has everything to lose every time he steps into the ring.
“I'm not worried about going in and making any mistakes and stuff and if I do make any mistake in the ring, rest assured I will correct it as the fight goes on,” Wilder insists. “I see this fight going one way and that's Deontay Wilder knocking out Luis Ortiz point blank and period. You know it, he knows it, I know it.
“I know when we were in the ring the first time he hit me with everything in the kitchen sink, stuff that he knows that he usually hits opponents with and they go down. But I'm a different beast and with that being said I have got a lot of things that I have got to do. I'm fighting for one champion. One face. One name. That's the unification and nothing is going to get in my way of that. Nobody.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox