Deontay Wilder says he is “thrilled” by promoter Eddie Hearn's hype and belief in him ahead of his fight against Zhang Zhilei in a five-on-five event in Riyadh this Saturday night.
Former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) has suffered some recent losses but will be encouraged by Hearn's belief in him and his encouragement ahead of a very risky fight against Big Bang Chan (26-2-1, 21 KOs).
Many had written off the 38-year-old Wilder after three losses since 2020, but Hearn believed in him enough to make him captain of the Matchroom Boxing team.
Hearn's endorsement of Wildle gives him a chance to move on to a bigger fight if he wins — maybe not against Anthony Joshua as he dreamed of, but against an interesting opponent.
The excitement of Hearn's promotion
“Eddie [Hearn] “He wanted to promote me. I'm a promoter's dream. I can do anything I want. I'm the greatest puncher in the history of boxing,” Deontay Wilder said of promoter Eddie Hearn in an interview on Title Sports Network.
“It gives me goosebumps to see him hyping me up and pumping me up because he's a loudmouth. He can hype up his fighters and to see him talk about me, it gets me fired up. It makes me want to complete the mission, complete the task, get the job done,” Wilder said.
Hearn knows he has to motivate Wilder and get him confident again after two losses to Tyson Fury and his most recent defeat to Joseph Parker. Wilder was underdogmed in his first and third fights with Fury, both of which he won, but as we saw recently, the referees were credited with saving the popular Gypsy King.
“We're going to do a five-man sweep and get everybody out of there, that's something else. I'm smiling about that,” Wilder said of Hearn naming him team captain.
It's unlikely that the Matchroom team will win the tournament. Queensberry has some quality fighters who will likely win some, if not all, of the five bouts on the card. I wouldn't be surprised to see Queensberry go 5-0. It may be up to Deontay to stop Queensberry from dominating the tournament.
Hearn's confidence in Wilder
“You know why? Because he's the most high-profile fighter on the card. He's the most popular fighter,” Eddie Hearn said of choosing him as team captain. “He's the most accomplished fighter in the sport. He's one of the most exciting fighters on the planet.”
Hearn is blunt here in saying that Wilder is the “most popular” fighter on the Matchroom team, but there are plenty of lesser known fighters on his team. Wilder has been there for many years and is the elder statesman of the team. He is the oldest member of the team and has more of a track record than anyone else.
“More importantly, he's one of the most feared fighters out there. I want to beat my guy in the end,” Hearn said of Wilder. “Maybe I need to turn it around. Maybe I need to let Deontay win by knockout. I can sit there and say, 'Good luck, mate, get those four points.'”
If Wilder can get his right punch in full force and land it on Zhang, he'll likely knock him out, but he's looked intimidated in some of his fights and will need the confidence to land the punch.
“So I did it because there are other guys, young guys, experienced guys and this guy is experienced. He can keep his cool. Zhang Zhilei said some bad things tonight so I'm going to beat him up on Saturday night,” Hearn said.
