Deontay Wilder has swatted away talk of retirement by claiming he is ready to fight for another decade.
Wilder, 39, looked to be nearing the tail-end of his boxing career when he suffered back-to-back losses to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang, the latter of which saw “The Bronze Bomber” brutally knocked out.
But after a year out, he got back in the win column with a big knockout win of Tyrrell Herndon in June.
With renewed confidence, the former heavyweight champion now believes he is nowhere near retirement.
“I got 10 years left,” Wilder said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “Will I commit fully to that or not? I got my 10 years left to do what I got to do, to enjoy myself while I can in this little moment of me being here, and I’m gonna have a damn good time doing it.”
Wilder doubled down on the claim that he plans to fight until he’s 50, adding: “Most definitely. You’ve got to understand, in the heavyweight division, we tend to go a little bit longer than the rest.
“Being the bigger guys, the division is not as packed as the smaller divisions. We don’t take too much damage as the smaller guys. Most of the smaller guys, they’re careers are done by like 30. You see Bernard Hopkins, he went to about 49, 50. You got the heavyweights, they always go a little bit longer.
“I got into this business at 21, so I feel right now that I’m a veteran. I just got into the groove of things and understanding certain things. I’m not burnt out at all. I feel great, you know what I’m saying? Of course, age is what it is, but we get older every year. We can’t change that factor of things, it’s just the way life is.
“But age is only a number… if we went off of what we felt, then a lot of us feel real young. Some of us would be young and feel old. It’s a beautiful thing to be where I am in this place, in this mindset, and I’m just ready to go.”
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Wilder currently boasts a pro record of 44-4-1, having remained undefeated until his trilogy with Tyson Fury.
The American bruiser has previously expressed his interest in fighting former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and feels “it’s just a matter of time” until that bout gets booked.
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