By Keith Idec, photo by Ryan Hafey

NEW YORK – Deontay Wilder has spent the past week in Manhattan, attending a civil trial from which he hopes to win $5 million in damages.

It’s been a tedious process, an admitted distraction. Wilder is certain, however, that he’ll still be properly prepared to defend his WBC heavyweight title against Gerald Washington on February 25 in Birmingham, Alabama (FOX).

Wilder has worked with co-trainer Mark Breland after spending each day in a federal courtroom, where a jury will determine whether to award Wilder $5 million in damages from his ill-fated fight against Alexander Povetkin.

“I’m still training during the case,” Wilder said. “I’ve got Mark Breland down here with me, too. After court, we always come and go train and stuff like that. So I’m still staying focused. I’m still in training, so when [February] 25th comes, I’m ready, with no excuses.”

The 31-year-old Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) spent part of the previous week in Houston, where he did numerous interviews to promote his fight against Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs) toward the end of Super Bowl week. Traveling from Alabama to Houston to New York, and eventually back to Alabama, isn’t ideal, but Wilder accounted for attending the trial when he structured his training camp for this fight.

“It’s a little distraction, but I’m handling it well, though,” Wilder said. “I’m just ready for it to be over with at the end of the day. I’m so ready for it to be over with and done with. I kind of think it’s kind of crazy – the situation and what it is to be in court. Because they know what they’re guilty of, but the jury will decide for us. Just like my lawyer [Judd Berstein] said in court, he said to the jury in court, ‘This case, you don’t need evidence. This is a common sense case.’ And I one-thousand-percent agree with him.”

Wilder sued promoter Andrey Ryabinsky and Povetkin for $5 million a few weeks after their May 21 fight in Moscow was canceled due to Povetkin’s postitive test for meldonium, a banned performance-enhancing drug.

The $5 million – $4.5 million of which would account for the purse Wilder would’ve made for fighting Povetkin – has been placed in escrow. The jury’s decision is expected sometime this week.

Russia’s Povetkin was the mandatory challenger for Wilder’s title. Povetkin, who failed another pre-fight PED test prior to his scrapped December 17 fight against Bermane Stiverne, is not expected to fight Wilder after the trial ends.

“It’s still a part of me that would love to fight Povetkin,” Wilder said. “You know what I mean? Just for the simple fact for what has happened – the waste of my time, the waste of my people’s time.”

Povetkin also has attended the trial, but Wilder hasn’t considered the situation awkward.

“I don’t feel no type of way towards him, nor his people,” Wilder said. “We’re in court and we’re gonna let the court decide what happens. And I feel very strongly that the jury are gonna find it in my favor. That’s gonna be all that I need. Being victorious in this court, it’s gonna be everything I need.

“I don’t have to get mad. I don’t have to feel no type of way or nothing like that. I’m just a different type of person. It don’t make no sense to me to be mad at him right now. We’re in court. This is what we’ve been waiting on. This is the moment. I haven’t stopped. My career hasn’t stopped. So why would I stress and work myself up to be mad at him? It’s useless.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.