WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury believes Deontay Wilder did the smart thing by remaining quiet during their kickoff press conference last month in Los Angeles.
The two boxers came together to announce their trilogy fight, which is scheduled for July 24th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Fury dominated and stopped Wilder in seven rounds in their February 2020 rematch.
In the aftermath, Wilder had a variety of reasons for the outcome – including a claim that his ring-walk costume was too heavy and tired out his legs by the time the fight started. He also made allegations that Fury loaded his gloves with egg-weights.
If Wilder would have spoken, Fury would have been all over him on the past statements regarding the costume and gloves.
“He didn’t really make me feel anything,” Fury told reporter Gareth Davies. “I thought it was a very clever move from Wilder, he’s not the most articulate person in the world but he did something where he couldn’t be asked questions for the things he’d said.
“If he’d come into the press conference answering questions, the first thing the press would have done is tear him apart about the costume and the drugs in his water. How do you answer those questions? Taking a vow of silence is probably the best thing he could have done.”
At the end of the presser, Fury and Wilder engaged in a long face-off that lasted for several minutes. Eventually it came to an end when Wilder turned around and left with his team members.
“We were standing there,” Fury said. “It was his choice to stand and not turn away for a minute or two and all of a sudden he was feeling uncomfortable and jittery.
“I could see he was twitching a little bit and stuff, his trainer came over and rescued him, all he did was touch his shoulder and said ‘that’ll do now,’ and he was so happy to be rescued.
“If you’re going to go to the point of not looking away for five minutes and forty seconds, why give away the moral victory straight away like that?”