Possible Deontay Wilder Comeback Spotlights The Dichotomy of The Bronze Bomber

In a recent TMZ interview, former WBC heavyweight world champion Deontay Wilder kept the door open for a ring return.

The 39-year-old “Bronze Bomber” told the happy-faced gossip site reporter at LAX that he’s still training after suffering what he says was a broken arm last November and that “there’s been a lot of offers coming in” when it comes to a future fight. He also specifically didn’t nix a potential bout with former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou.

The sad part is that, given Wilder’s diminished state, an Ngannou fight is probably 50-50 at this point.

Even sadder is the fact that the “I broke my arm” stuff is laying the groundwork for a very likely comeback because, apparently, his one-sided losses to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang were justifiable– at least to him and his people.

The idea that Wilder may return to the ring, after what we’ve seen from him in his last several fights, is more than a little off-putting. He’s lost four of his last five, has been knocked out three times in that span, and has shown shockingly little fire in his last two performances.

But the man is an interesting character and a compelling fighter– two things that will make a boxer bankable long after he’s viable. There’s also the reality that true American boxing stars are hard to come by these days. There will be people offering him comebacks for as long as he can physically pull himself into the ring.

The prolific KO artist is a divisive figure among boxing fans, one that elicits respect among some within the boxing fan base as well as disdain from others in that same group.

There are differing narratives that motor the legacy of Deontay Wilder. This writer has touched on the positive and the negative throughout the Tuscaloosa, Alabama native’s 16-year pro career.

There’s this, from a piece from FightHype.com:

“In Wilder, we have a man who gambled on a life in the cruelest of all sports in order to better provide for his disabled daughter. And despite a late, late start in the sport (he began training at 20 years of age), he won a National Golden Gloves title in just his 16th amateur fight, he won the U.S. Olympic trials in just his 21st amateur bout, and then earned a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He would go on to win the WBC heavyweight title as a pro and successfully defend that belt ten times (nine via stoppage)…

Wilder, in my eyes, will go down in history as a man who made his mark in his chosen profession and always gave an honest effort. He performed with heart and to the best of his abilities. The sport was better with him in it.”

But there was also the other side.

Many criticized his level of opposition throughout his rise and even through much of his title reign.

They also pointed out the bizarre and ugly turn he made following his TKO loss to Tyson Fury in 2020, the first defeat of his career.

This writer also spoke about that in the virtual pages of Fight Hype:

“In the weeks and months after breaking his silence, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ rattled off an Alex Jones-sized list of conspiracy theories explaining the seventh round TKO.

Culled from the wild words of Wilder, he lost because: He was hobbled by a bicep injury…His ring walk attire was too heavy and tired his legs…Tyson Fury loaded his gloves with an egg-shaped foreign object…Co-trainer Mark Breland, who ultimately threw in the towel during the Fury beating and got fired because of it a few months later, spiked his water and conspired against him out of jealousy…A drunken referee Kenny Bayless conspired against him and intentionally elbowed him in the face during the fight.

‘All this shit is coming full circle. It’s all making sense now,’ Wilder said in a February 2021 interview, one full year after the loss.”

The boxing world is just an extension of the real world, albeit a bit more colorful and in-your-face grimy. It’s absolutely possible for one man to have good and bad about him. It’s also absolutely possible to praise as well as criticize that same person.

Hopefully, the dichotomy of Deontay Wilder is left as an interesting remembrance in boxing history and not redirected into an ongoing tale buried within one man’s pursuit of paydays and refusal to accept the reality of where he’s at.