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UFC president Dana White did not mince his words about Deontay Wilder’s walkout costume for the Tyson Fury fight.
Deontay Wilder suffered the first loss of his career at the hands of Tyson Fury, as he dropped the WBC heavyweight title in the process. In a post-fight conversation with the media, “The Bronze Bomber” blamed his walkout costume as a contributor to his defeat.
“My uniform was way too heavy for me. I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight. In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through,” he said.
Dana White recently ran into TMZ and was asked about Wilder’s explanation. Overall, the UFC president did agree that the costume may have been a factor.
UFC and their outfitting policy with Reebok restricts the amount of creative walkouts fighters can do. Apart from the millions they get from that deal, White says he just isn’t a fan of “bulls—t” outfits.
“If you think about boxing and fights, when fighters are getting ready, they’re in the back, they’re relaxing,” White explained. “Some guys sleep. Some guys just lay around and chill. They you get up, you time it out and you do your warm up. Then you throw something on to stay warm.
“You don’t put this gear on and all this stuff. That’s why I don’t do any of that bullsh-t in the UFC. I don’t like it.”
While White does see some logic behind Wilder’s reasoning, he still believes Fury was the better man that night.
“It definitely played a part in it, yeah,” he said. “Throwing on a 50-pound weighted vest and walking out to a ring for a heavyweight championship fight, you’ve never seen anybody do that in history.
“Is that the reason he lost? The reason he lost is because Fury is a badass boxer and he fought the perfect fight that night and executed his game plan. But (the costume) played a factor in why Deontay lost.”
Fury and Wilder are expected to face each other for the third time in July.