TYSON FURY has made a heartfelt plea to former heavyweight rival Deontay Wilder to retire while he still has all his faculties.
The once-feared Bronze Bomber has lost four of his last five ring outings, most recently suffering back-to-back Saudi slappings at the hands of Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
APDeontay Wilder was once the most fearsome force in the heavyweight division[/caption]
GETTYBut the Bronze Bomber has lost four of his last five, with three defeats coming via brutal KO[/caption]
GETTYAnd former foe Tyson Fury has made a heartfelt plea for the American to call it a day[/caption]
A brutal KO defeat to Zhang in June, his third in four years, sparked pleas for him to hang up his gloves.
Wilder has yet to heed those calls, prompting Fury – who knocked him out twice king in their epic trilogy – to plea for the former WBC king to leave the sport on his own terms.
During an appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, the Gypsy King said: “I’d like to see poor old Deontay retire from boxing.
“Obviously he lost the three fights to me. We took a lot of years off of each other’s lives.
“That war that ended in the 11th round by knockout, that takes a lot out your tank and you don’t recover from fights like that.
“Between me and Wilder in our trilogy there were ten knockdowns. It takes a lot out of a fighter.
“Even when he’s come back and had a couple of fights since against Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang, he’s only a shadow of his former glory.”
Wilder, 39, has yet to reveal if he plans to have one last foray into the ring, which Fury believes he’d be ill-advised to make.
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He said of the Olympic bronze medallist: “The only thing left of Deontay is his name. And that’s it.
“So I’d like to see him retire for sure before he does damage to himself.”
Wilder has kept an incredibly low profile since having his chin cracked by Zhang, although his head coach Malik Scotts insists he DOES want to fight again.
He recently told Boxing Scene: “He definitely wants to fight again, for sure.
“Some good things should be coming up in 2025.
“For now, Deontay has just been resting and focusing on family and his businesses.
“When you are in the second half of your career and in high-level fights against bigger guys, rest is just as important as ripping and running.”