Ex-WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has called Floyd Mayweather's claim that he could help him to beat Tyson Fury a publicity stunt, adding that the former pound-for-pound number one has placed bets against him in the past.
Retired boxing icon Mayweather has pledged that he could train Wilder to avenge his crushing defeat against new WBC king Fury earlier this year, when the "Bronze Bomber" had to be saved by the towel as his trainer, Mark Breland, ended the one-sided beating.
Despite sacking Breland after questioning his decision and even accusing him of being part of a plot to spike his water in the fight this week, Wilder has made it abundantly clear that he will not be replacing him with revered tactician Mayweather.
“All this time, and all of a sudden now?" Wilder asked Barbershop Conversations, speaking as part of an interview in which he made more bizarre claims about tampering before his second fight with Fury and advised his rival to start making "funeral arrangements".
Also on rt.com 'It is time for you to be a man': Deontay Wilder calls on Tyson Fury to 'honor agreement' and sign up for trilogy fight"Why? I don’t need anybody. My thing is, every fighter I’ve fought, Floyd has bet against me.
"I’ve made it all this far. Why do I need to change up anything? Of course, we need to replace [Breland], and you’re going to see what it is. But nobody has reached out to me.
“It’s publicity. When I see people do that stuff, it’s for publicity. But to the offer [from Mayweather]: thank you but no thank you.
"I don’t feel any love from that man. Their actions don’t show that. It’s fake love to me but they know that themselves.
"They can’t look me in the eyes and tell me they care about me and want to see me do well."
Also on rt.com 'I’ve moved on': Tyson Fury says he WILL NOT face Deontay Wilder trilogy fight in 2020, targeting UK bout in DecemberMayweather, who has a stable of fighters under his "The Money Team" banner, was mocked by Fury after news of his prediction that he could help Wilder beat him emerged.
"No matter what you teach him, I will smash him," Fury tweeted, and Wilder seemed equally unconvinced by Mayweather's approach to his fighters.
"Every time you see him, it’s about him," he said. “I’m just going to continue to provide my greatness for the next five years, and when I’m gone, people are going to miss me because they see it’s boring now.
“[In] the second [fight with Fury], they did what they had to do and they still couldn’t keep that black man down.
“You didn’t knock me out. My trainer saved you because he was a part of that sh*t. The referee saved you because he was a part of that sh*t.
Also on rt.com 'We can make his skills a lot better': Floyd Mayweather promises to fine-tune Deontay Wilder ahead of Tyson Fury trilogy bout“The people around in the vicinity saved you because they were a part of that sh*t.
“I want them bad. And when I get them, because I’m going to get them, you better make the funeral arrangements.
“And when it happens I’m coming to spit on their tomb. I’m coming to spit on every last one of them.
“I want you to really make your soul burn in hell. I’m going to spit on your tombstone. I’m going to spit and wipe my feet on it.”
Wilder has slipped out of the spotlight at the top of the division, with much of the talk around a "superfight" in 2021 between Fury and fellow British champion Anthony Joshua.
The 35-year-old initially blamed the weight of his ringwalk costume on his seventh-round knockout defeat to Fury, and has now ranted that he is the star of the weight class.
"The heavyweight division ain’t sh*t without Wilder," he insisted. “They know that because there ain’t nobody that's got what I have.
"The excitement. The things that I do and the things that I say. I don’t go against my grain. I go with the grain. I fight for my people."
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