HANDS OF TIME

"The night of the fight, you feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride! Pride only hurts, it never helps." - Marcellus Wallace ('Pulp Fiction')

None of us can do anything about getting older and losing some functionality along the way, whether it be physical or mental, or both. For boxers, where the thin line between life and death hangs always in the balance, the implications of time and mortality probably become far more real for them early on than in many other sports.

Last night, American Heavyweight Champion, Deontay Wilder, became old in the ring and all the supernatural strength and fearsome Southern menace he once possessed evaporated before our very eyes. For those of us who remember him as a 'stone cold killer' in the ring it was sad to see, though there's no point in pretending he wasn't getting considerable money to suffer such professional ignominy even if any number of the blows he endured from his opponent Zhang might have had the very real potential to kill him right there and then. Wilder often boasted in times past of wanting to 'have a body on his record' but most of us knew that was just for show, distasteful as it may have sounded at the time. It has since been suggested by some commentators that after almost fatally injuring his good friend and sparring partner Robert Helenius in a comeback fight in October 23, 2022 at the Barclays Center, New York, Wilder became increasingly mindful of the damage he might do with his fists and began to soften his 'killer' talk. Wilder, playing the man of peace as opposed to the man of war, left him cruelly exposed in a sport which thrives on grit and spite.

'I never thought about boxing in my life to participate in. But when the opportunity came about and I saw a way to provide for my family, especially my daughter at that moment in time, I looked her in her eyes and I said, "Daddy will be a world champion and I'll be able to support you beyond belief" and I did it." - Deontay Wilder  

Now, as Deontay heads home to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to be returned to his wife and kids, the 'pride' that Marcellus Wallace famously warned Butch would 'sting' in 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) might actually injure him more profoundly in his soul than the Zhang right hook that knocked him out cold on the canvas in the Kingdom of Saudi last night. Perhaps, though, Wilder has made peace with his fate similar to Jules in that same Tarantino classic movie and has seen the light as to the bigger picture in life. For hitman Jules, he gave up killing people to become a man of peace and wander the earth "like Caine in 'Kung Fu'"; for Deontay he is giving up almost killing people with his hellacious 'bronze bombs' and going on to enjoy either retirement or reinvention. It should be remembered that Wilder originally pursued boxing as a way of raising money to help pay for his daughter Neieya's medical bills for a serious spinal condition. Promising his daughter that he would become World Champion, Deontay won not only the greatest prize in life by making good on that noble promise but also by securing the WBC belt which he defended successfully on more than ten occasions. Perhaps it will be that pure motivation which will keep Wilder in good cheer on nights when he regrets the whimper with which the lights finally went out on his career in the ring from Zhang's 'big bang'.

But no true fan of the sport will ever forget the strange voodoo fear factor Wilder brought each time he stepped into the ring and the brutal knockouts he delivered like a cold hearted executioner. It was Wilder's devastating right hand that nearly put to sleep Tyson Fury's comeback path to redemption on December 1st, 2018 before the Gypsy King rose like Lazarus and wowed the sporting world, leading to another two fights with Deontay that resulted in one of the most compelling bad blood trilogies of all boxing history.

They say power is the last thing to leave a fighter but for a man who relied almost exclusively on it, it seems to have deserted Wilder sooner than even he or those around him might have expected. For as Deontay's gunshot right hand will no longer present a challenge to his opponents or strike the fear of God into them, 'the bronze bomber' may now find himself facing his own existential challenge.

The hands of time.