Boxing
'I just thought it was old injuries!' - Deontay Wilder reveals broken arm before Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang bouts
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Deontay Wilder has revealed that he fought his bouts with Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang while nursing a broken arm that he did not even realise he had.
The Bronze Bomber suffered back-to-back career defeats for the second time when he faced the New Zealander in December 2023 and the Chinese star in June 2024.
Fighting on Riyadh Season cards, Wilder lost by unanimous decision against the former, before he suffered a TKO against the latter after five rounds.
The two losses appeared to spell the end for the former WBC heavyweight champion as a divisional title contender, but there is now an even greater revelation to behold.
Wilder fought both men with what he assumed was wear-and-tear from old injuries, but recently discovered he had broken his arm a month before he faced Parker last year.
“I broke my arm way back in November some time," he told TMZ Sports. "I didn’t know. I had two tears on my shoulder. I could feel the pain.
"I just thought it was old injuries. But I got an MRI [recently] and everything was f***ed up there. I didn’t know because I’ve got a high tolerance of pain."
Wilder is currently in the midst of injury rehabilitation, but looks likely to target a return to the ring in 2025, following Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury's rematch in December.
Control of the heavyweight division will fall to either incumbent champion Usyk or his rival Fury, along with Britain's Daniel Dubois, who currently holds the IBF heavyweight title.
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