Deontay Wilder has insisted that he didn’t have to come back to boxing.
The former WBC heavyweight champion will make his return on October 15 after over a year out.
Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) has not fought since suffering a second defeat to Tyson Fury at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas back in October 2021.
He is on the verge of a showdown with Robert Helenius and is set to take on the Finnish fighter at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York in a couple of months’ time.
But ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder, who won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics back in 2008, stated in a media huddle that the sport isn’t at the forefront of his mind anymore.
The 36-year-old, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said:
“I make more money outside of the boxing ring than in it and I’ve always tried to educate other fighters.
“I’ve always tried to tell them but in the midst of that, I’ve lost a few of them that have fallen by the wayside.
“Maybe because they see a black man from the south and they think ‘he don’t know what he’s talking about’ and now the proof is in the pudding.”
Wilder is still regarded as somebody who has plenty to offer in the sport’s premier division, despite the two defeats to ‘The Gypsy King’.
Fury now looks set to take on Oleksandr Usyk, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion who claimed the Ring Magazine title at heavyweight with a rematch win over Anthony Joshua at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
But Wilder has stated that his mission is one of clarity and his desire is to look after the next generation.
He added:
“I have a statue and I’m a walking, living legend that don’t even have to come to the sport, but I’m coming back to motivate, to inspire so many others.”