Deontay Wilder has blamed his elaborate ring-walk costume for his WBC heavyweight title defeat by Tyson Fury.
\nThe American, 34 said his costume was too heavy and as a result he \u201cdidn\u2019t have the legs\u201d for the fight.
\nBritain\u2019s Fury, 31, produced a dominant display to win the title in Las Vegas on Saturday when Wilder\u2019s corner threw in the towel in the seventh round.
\nWilder also told US media he will exercise his rematch clause for a third fight against Fury.
\n\u201cFury didn\u2019t hurt me at all, but the simple fact is that my uniform was way too heavy for me,\u201d Wilder told Tidesports source
\nWilder said the costume, which featured armour, a mask and a crown, weighed at least 40 pounds (18.1kg) and was a tribute to Black History Month.
\nFury was carried to the ring on a throne, while also wearing a crown.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t have no legs from the beginning of the fight – in the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through,\u201d added Wilder.
\n\u201cI was only able to put it on [for the first time] the night before but I didn\u2019t think it was going to be that heavy.
\n\u201cI wanted it to be good and I guess I put that before anything.\u201d
\nFury floored Wilder with a jab and right-hand combination in the third round before a left hand to the body sent the previously unbeaten Wilder down again in the fifth.
\nWilder was taken to hospital after the fight but said he did not suffer a concussion, broken ear drum or broken jaw as had been speculated, but did require stitches to close a cut in his ear.
\nHe also criticised assistant trainer Mark Breland for stopping the fight.
\n\u201cI am upset with Mark for the simple fact that we\u2019ve talked about this many times and it\u2019s not emotional,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt is not an emotional thing, it\u2019s a principle thing. We\u2019ve talked about this situation many, many years before this even happened.
\n\u201cI said as a warrior, as a champion, as a leader, as a ruler, I want to go out on my shield.
\n\u201cSo I told my team to never, ever, no matter what it may look like, to never throw the towel in with me because I\u2019m a special kind. I still had five rounds left. No matter what it looked like, I was still in the fight.\u201d
\n\u201cI understand he was looking out for me and trying to do what he felt was right, but this is my life and my career and he has to accept my wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deontay Wilder has blamed his elaborate ring-walk costume for his WBC heavyweight title defeat by Tyson Fury. The American, 34 said his costume was too heavy and as a result he \u201cdidn\u2019t have the legs\u201d for the fight. Britain\u2019s Fury, 31, produced a dominant display to win the title in Las Vegas on Saturday when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/228815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}