Deontay Wilder says he broke his arm, had surgery before Tyson Fury fight

Last Saturday night, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder attempted to defend his title against resurgent British star Tyson Fury. After 12 incredible rounds of action, Wilder had done just that — although not quite in the way he’d hoped.

While Wilder was hoping for a 40th knockout victory, he instead had to settle for a draw, as his two knockdowns were counterbalanced by Tyson Fury’s performance throughout the rest of the fight.

Apparently, however, Deontay Wilder was not operating at full capacity in this fight. Instead, he says he broke his arm as he prepared for this fight, and actually had to get surgery to repair this injury.

Wilder says he kept this injury hidden so the fight would go ahead as planned.

“Twelve weeks before camp I broke my [right] arm,” he told talkSPORT. “We kept that a secret. I had surgery and everything. All the way up here I got cut.”

Apparently, he sustained this injury when his arm connected with an elbow in a sparring session.

“I was sparring, just getting ready and I was getting the best of my sparring partner,” he said. “I was going to the body and he turned. His elbow was out. My bones and his elbow went in like a hammer to a nail and it just broke it.”

While Deontay Wilder has made this injury public in the wake of his thriller with Tyson Fury, he says he does not intend to make excuses.

“We wanted to keep that sowed up, we don’t make excuses. I barely threw any [right hand] punches my whole entire camp.”

Given the outcome of this fight, it seems more than likely that Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury meet again sometime in the New Year — although the allure of a fight with Anthony Joshua could delay these plans.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/5/2018.