Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch believes the trilogy series with Tyson Fury has created a significant physical impact on Deontay Wilder.
Wilder went through a grueling series of fights with Fury, and suffered stoppage losses in their last two encounters, in 2020 and 2021.
Last Saturday in Saudi Arabia, Wilder suffered his third loss in four fights after being outworked over twelve rounds by Joseph Parker, who walked away with a lopsided unanimous decision win.
Wilder, who was coming off a 14-month layoff, was a significant favorite to win.
During the fight, Wilder never let his hands go and appeared to be tentative to pull the trigger when the openings were present.
“I feel that those fights [with Fury] have taken a lot out of Deontay Wilder. He got knocked down a few times, badly hurt, stopped. Those beatings, they can’t go unnoticed, they take the stamina bar down. Every single fight ages you. You leave a piece of you in that ring every time you have a bad fight,” Froch stated on his YouTube channel.
“I’m sorry, I think he’s about finished. I don’t think his mind is in the right place, I think that performance was not the Deontay Wilder that I expect. This is now an old guy who’s been beaten a few times now. Twice off Fury and now Parker. And Parker, we know his levels. He’s lost to Whyte, he’s lost to AJ. This is a guy that’s not really performing at world level. I’m not saying he can’t, he might be back. Parker is back, done really well.
“I think Deontay Wilder’s finished. I don’t want to take the shine off Parker by playing down Deontay Wilder, because that was a great performance, but I think Deontay Wilder needs to just finish.”