Deontay Wilder: “If Bermane Stiverne Beats Me, I Will Retire”

Deontay Wilder’s WBC world heavyweight championship isn’t the only thing that is on the line when he fights Bermane Stiverne in a couple of weeks; Wilder’s career is on the line.

In a conference call, which Fightful participated, Wilder talked about his upcoming fight against Stiverne and said he didn’t want any excuses coming from Stiverne should Wilder beat Stiverne. Wilder doubled down on his promise that he will beat Stiverne and avenge the fact that Stiverne is the only man that Wilder has never knocked out that Wilder promised he would retire if he loses.

“Ya’ll can quote me on this. Ya’ll can put this down to paper. You can put this at the top of the headlines because of the way I’ve been feeling about boxing right now. If Bermane Stiverne beats me, I will retire. You can put that down. I will be out of the way. Boxing doesn’t have to worry about me anymore because it hasn’t been doing me any good. All I wanted to do was prove that I am the best and the best doesn’t want to fight. What’s the point of me being in this sport? If Bermane beats me, you’ll never have to hear about me anymore. I’m done. It doesn’t get any more serious than that. Let the games begin,” Wilder said.

Wilder is facing Stiverne in a rematch from their 2015 bout, in which Wilder beat Stiverne to win the WBC title. Wilder’s run as champion has been marred by his numerous opponents failing drug tests with only weeks before the fight. His upcoming November 4 fight is just the latest example of that. Wilder was supposed to fight Luis Ortiz, but he failed a VADA test with about a month before the fight was supposed to take place.

Wilder has expressed his frustrations with boxing’s issue with heavyweights failing drug tests in the aftermath of Ortiz’s situation and even admitted that he has thought about retiring in the past few weeks.

The rematch between Wilder and Stiverne is headlining a Showtime Championship Boxing card at the Barclays Center on November 4. Also on the card is Shawn Porter fighting Adrian Granados for the WBC Silver welterweight title and Sergey Lipinets fighting Akihiro Kondo for the IBF junior welterweight title that Terence Crawford vacated shortly after unifying all four major world titles at 140 pounds. Fightful will have complete coverage of the Barclays Center card.