JEFF POWELL: Deontay Wilder has morphed into a silent assassin

JEFF POWELL: Deontay Wilder once screamed his nickname to the world – now the Bronze Bomber has morphed into the Silent Assassin after his five-minute face-off with Tyson Fury… The monster puncher is consumed by ‘hate’ in bid to restore pride

• Deontay Wilder is on a mission to reclaim his title and pride against Tyson Fury 
• The Gypsy King stopped the American in February 2020 to become WBC champ
• Wilder has become less vocal and is motivated by hate in his quest to beat Fury 
• We are left wondering how much his loss affected him due to his silence 

Deontay Wilder is hardly talking. Not in public, anyway.

Next month’s challenger to Tyson Fury descended from monosyllabic on a zoom call to nigh-on wordless on stage at the official announcement of their world heavyweight championship trilogy fight.

Aren’t Americans supposed to be the hard-sell merchants?

Our Gypsy King finds himself virtually alone as the ringmaster of boxing’s biggest circus this summer. Roll up, roll up cried Fury as he tried to tease and provoke Wilder out of his shell.

Deontay Wilder was nigh-on wordless when he took to the stage to face Tyson Fury this week

The American refused to detonate during a five-minute silent face off with the Gypsy King 

Still the Bronze Bomber refused to detonate. His ear-phones keeping him oblivious to questions.

What has become of the monster puncher behind the preposterous mask, who screamed his nickname at the world, since he was battered to brutal defeat in their first rematch almost 18 months ago?

Has he morphed into the silent assassin, as he insinuated in one of his brief outbursts?

Or is he ‘psychologically and emotionally crushed’ by his only loss, as Fury postulates?

We are left trying to discern the answer to those questions from the scraps of an interview reluctantly agreed, grudgingly given and abruptly terminated.

What has become of the Bronze Bomber, who once shouted his nickname to the entire world?

It would appear that he is now consumed by ‘hate.’ That was the staccato word he applied to Fury when invited to describe his feelings about the Mancunian giant who stripped him of his WBC world title, his unbeaten record and no small portion of his pride.

Having legally obliged Fury to fight him instead of Anthony Joshua, he does go on to say: ‘I hate him now. It will always be there. After I had looked after him financially by giving him the second fight and put food on his family’s table, he tried to run away from our rematch contract. Like a coward.

‘But then we are dealing with a known drug cheat. A lot of people chose to be like those monkeys: See no evil, hear no evil.’

Fury has mocked myriad insults, bizarre excuses and wild accusations fired at him in bursts by Wilder on social media, where he is now at his most vocal.

Wilder admits he ‘hates’ Fury and that his mood is ‘violent’ as he plots his downfall on July 24

Almost manically, Wilder says: ‘The time is coming to knock his head off. There will be bloodshed on July 24. I’ve never felt this way about an opponent before. But hate is always a motivation to destroy. That’s what the devil does every day.’

Fury changed style from elusive to aggressive in the second fight and promises now to ‘run him over like an 18-wheeler.’ Says Wilder: ‘Whatever he does I will have my answer. Like when the phone rings. His punishment will be as brutal as the worst your mind can imagine.’

He claims he was mentally ‘unaffected by the defeat.’ That he ‘recuperated by having time with my family.’

He insists: ‘I have always been happy.’ Yet he adds: ‘My mood now is very violent.’

He is gunning to restore his world titles as well as pride that Fury took from him last February

These dark mutterings are impulsive and Fury, having overcome his own demons of depression, says: ‘I have been worried about Deontay since our last fight.’

Wilder strives for perspective, saying: ‘When the call came that we had won our tribunal to enforce this fight I was training. I was not surprised. I knew we were in the right. That we would win. So I just began training harder and already I am ready to go.

‘Justice was served by the mediator. So now the world wants to know what will be different this time. The world will see on July 24 in Las Vegas when more powerful justice Is served by me.’

He already has his sights on Anthony Joshua next as he bids to become the ‘one face’ of boxing

If so, then what? Anthony Joshua to become a two-time world champion and the first undisputed holder of all the alpha-titles in the four-belt era?

‘If Joshua wins his fight with (Olexsandr) Usyk,’ says Wilder. ‘If he does, my mission will be the same against him as it has always been. The same as it will be against Tyson: One champion, one face, one name.’

Then he clammed up again, after saying: ‘Silence is golden.’

Be sure Tyson Fury will have something to say about that.

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