The WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World, Deontay Wilder, can afford to hire a personal chef and a nutritionist, but nothing he eats can satisfy his hunger.
“When we get in the ring we’re going to be like two hungry dogs getting ready for the last piece of meat that’s going to be served,” Wilder said. “…Then I’m going to thank him [Chris Arreola] for coming to Alabama after I welcome him, and we going to go on with our lives.”
Wilder’s wait is almost over now. He will defend his title for the fourth time overall, and the third time in his home state of Alabama, when he gets in the ring with Arreola (36-4-1, 31 KOs) on Saturday night in a fight that will be televised by FOX.
Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) was originally supposed to fight Alexander Povetkin on May 21, but Povetkin failed a drug test leading up the fight, and Wilder found himself home a week earlier than scheduled.
But he trained for a fight- he needed to fight.
“I had a slight depression on me [when the Povetkin fight was postponed] because of what happened, because a man can put so much into training, so much into something that he loves and the thing that he loves that he want to do he can’t do because of another individual,” Wilder said. “…We knew we needed a fight quick to get my mind off certain things.”
Arreola only had six weeks to train, but he didn’t hesitate to accept the chance to compete with a title at stake for the third, and very likely last, time in his career. On Thursday, Wilder said his opponent wouldn’t deserve this chance under normal conditions, but he had limited choices with such short notice.
Wilder’s opponent was quick to agree with him.
“If you look at my last three performances in the last three fights…no I don’t deserve it, Arreola said. “But now that I have it, I’m going to take full advantage of what I got. I’m not going to take this lightly, this is my golden moment this is my Rocky moment.”
Arreola said most, Wilder included, are overlooking him in this fight. The odds offend him, but he said he wouldn’t change a thing. He wants to be the underdog.
“Honestly he [Wilder] sees a guppy, that’s what he sees. I’m a piranha,” Arreola said. “I’m gonna take his heart. He sees a guppy, he’s getting a piranha in there.”
Wilder doesn’t see it that way. He worked hard to prepare and he said he thought the fighters would provide his home state with a good show, but Wilder doesn’t doubt the outcome.
In his mind it’s not a matter of if, but when, he and everyone else in Legacy Arena hear’s the And Still at the conclusion of the fight.
“They say Chris don’t have nothing to lose and I feel the same way,” Wilder said. “I don’t have nothing to lose too, because I ain’t giving up nothing.”
