"My flesh hasn't been fed, so I am starving. When you get a person in poverty and he starving and he see a buffet and he gotta go through this man to get to that buffet, what you gonna do? You gonna destroy him. I don't look over none of my opponents. I always say I look through them, but I never look over them," stated WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, who talked about his upcoming title defense against heavyweight contender Chris Arreola. Check it out!
PC: How are you doing big man?
DW: I'm doing good, man. How about yourself?
PC: I can't complain. You always seem to be in high spirits and having fun. It was a little disturbing for me to hear you were suffering from depression, or were borderline depressed, following the Alexander Povetkin fallout. Are you in a better place now or is that something that you're still dealing with?
DW: I'm definitely in a better place. We gotta let the past be the past and look to the future of what's going on now. But sometimes I still think about the situation and the moment and opportunity that was taken away from me and being able to represent my country to the fullest against one of our rivals. That was the best shape I've ever been in. Well, I wouldn't say shape, but that was the best that I have looked throughout my whole career as far as dealing with training and my sparring partners; it was crazy. Any sparring partner that I had would tell you that I was a beast, especially at the end of camp. I was like a totally different fighter. Everything was put together right and I was toned to the tee. I was so ready to go to Russia and defeat Alexander Povetkin in Russia. But you know, like I say, man, when God closes one door, he opens another one and he did and here we are.
PC: Anytime a fight falls through, it's a terrible situation, but being that the fight was here and it was a week or so from happening, that had to be a very difficult situation, not only losing the fight, but the fine line of rescheduling this fight with Chris Arreola and not over-peaking again or knowing when to pick things back up.
DW: Yeah, most definitely. That was one of the issues that we resolved early because we didn't want to over-peak because realistically, I've still been in fight mode because my flesh hasn't been fed with the last fight. We were still in shape; I'm always in shape, but I was in even better shape this time than anytime because we trained so hard. Even having to travel so far, we kept up with our training regimen and we felt good. It's a short camp coming back, but this camp is going to be even shorter due to the circumstances of the camp that we've already been through.
PC: Arreola is a different style from Povetkin inside the ring and I think he also brings a different mentality. He has more of a kill-or-be-killed mentality. He gets berated a lot, but he's always a game fighter. That being said, did that change your approach any for Arreola as opposed to the mindset you were heading into the Povetkin fight with?
DW: I feel like I was so ready for Povetkin that it's just going to carry over into the Arreola fight. We don't have to change up any sparring partners. We still have the same guys. We grabbed a few guys that was similar to him in style, but as far as height and things like that, we were able to keep the same caliber of guys as opposed to if we had to fight a 6'6" guy. If that was the case, we would have had to find a whole different set of sparring partners, but we were able to keep the same with the height and the style that was displayed to me. We were definitely ready around here, so it's the same as if it is just a continuation from the last one. I think that's going to work in my favor. The reason we picked Arreola is that due to the circumstances, we knew that it was going to be a short notice and we needed a fighter that within a short notice, whether they are in the best shape or not, they were going to come and fight with their heart and give it their all and be real tough no matter what. People can say what they want about Chris Arreola, he comes to fight no matter what; short notice, two day notice, it doesn't matter. A lot of fighters are not ready like that.
Some fighters, the trainer decides what fight a fighter fights. I disagree with that, but some fighters allow that to happen to them. My trainer understands, if I feel a certain type of way, then that's what is going to happen. I think Chris' camp is the same way. If I feel like I should take a certain fight, then that's what's going to happen and Chris' people are the same way. We had a few names out there and I feel I chose the best name. A lot of guys in the top 10 were occupied and they had a few that wasn't, but everybody know that boxing is a business and the ones that wasn't occupied, it wasn't the right business approach for those guys to take a fight with me on short notice. We know if we would have chose those guys and one of them would have accepted, which most likely they probably wouldn't have, but even if they would have and once they got defeated, we already know what the excuse would have been. They would have said that they didn't have enough time to prepare. And for me, I want the best and I want the best to be ready for the best. So with that being said, we didn't want to pick a top 5 guy and they didn't have enough time to prepare for me. I'm already ready. I'm ready to go and for that reason and it being short notice, we chose the perfect person for a short notice fight and who is going to give a quality fight without a proper training camp.
PC: I don't want to dwell on the Povetkin thing too much, but I saw a lot of fans saying, "Wilder should have fought him anyways. He probably would have won." That's bad on so many levels because for one, there are no guarantees in boxing, and for two, why reward someone a paycheck who tried to cut corners?
DW: That's just typical fans that want to see a fight. They don't really care if people get hurt or not and that's just the bottom line and that's a prime example right there. They don't care if you get hurt or something bad happens to me; they just want to see that matchup and see that fight. I tell people this all the time when they bring this bogus excuse up of "we pay our money to see a fight." I tell them all the time, a fighter pays something that's priceless and that's our life. We pay with our life each and every time we get in that ring and if they don't understand that, then they can go somewhere else. At the end of the day, I did feel like I'm still going to whoop his ass, because now I'm furious, but like you said, if we would have did that, then it would have been like saying this is okay to do and for anybody else that may be doing this, it's okay to do this and that's not the type of message you want to send out. You can't reward that.
I try to explain to people, just imagine, take me for example, since I got this title, every guy that I have fought, except one, I have put them in the hospital. I'm knocking guys out. So just imagine if I put anything in my body that is not natural and allows me to perform at a higher level than my natural abilities allow. Just imagine that! Now you talking about me really killing somebody in the ring for real now. And then you want to take it a little bit further, I'm intentionally doing it, so now it's like I'm trying to kill someone in the ring. I'm putting this in my body, I'm shooting my veins up or I have been taking it orally, so I already know what I'm doing and I'm guilty as charged, and anybody doing that should be in prison.
PC: You sound more than ready to fight, but some would think maybe you could overlook Arreola. Are you being fueled by the Povetkin situation to be sure you don't overlook or underestimate Arreola?
DW: Well, my flesh hasn't been fed, so I am starving. When you get a person in poverty and he starving and he see a buffet and he gotta go through this man to get to that buffet, what you gonna do? You gonna destroy him. I don't look over none of my opponents. I always say I look through them, but I never look over them. I respect every fighter no matter what their record is or what they have done in their career as long as they get in that ring to fight. This is the heavyweight division and you just never know in this division. You can take one shot and it can be the end of the fight. I don't look past no one no matter who it is. I just want them to bring the best of them because I'm definitely going to bring the best of me.
PC: This went from the ultimate road game going over to Russia to the ultimate home game, so if you had find a silver lining in the fallout from this, that has to be it.
DW: Well, you know, I wanted to give back to my city. After my last fight, so many people been asking, "When's the next one?" It's becoming a big thing with these fights in the state of Alabama because it was something that they wasn't used to and now they getting familiar with it after each fight and now they getting thirstier for more. We fill them up and then it runs out and now it's becoming a big thing. As far as me traveling so far and to end up with nothing, I decided I wanted to stay home. I think it was the best approach for the situation. We had a lot of people wanted me to come to their venues, but at that point and time, I wanted to stay home. I didn't want to travel and get on no planes at this particular time.
PC: I'm glad they were able to get you right back in the ring. I look forward to the fight and I wish you the best of luck. Is there anything else you would like to add before I let you go?
DW: I just want to tell all of my fans from the bottom of my heart that I love them and I appreciate them supporting me. No matter what may go on in my life or who I fight, they are still there at the fights supporting me. I appreciate that a lot. July 16th, Deontay Wilder vs. Chris Arreola on FOX, don't miss it, guys! It's going to be a great one!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]