Anthony Smith: ‘Deontay Wilder has no shot ever moving forward to beat Tyson Fury’

The entire sports world has been buzzing over last Saturday’s Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury rematch, which saw Fury hand Wilder his first pro loss and claim the WBC heavyweight title via 7th-round stoppage. One of the latest members of the combat sports community to chime in on this fight is UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony Smith.

During MMA Tonight on Sirius XM, a show that Smith co-hosts, he did not hold back on Wilder’s performance against Fury. He also addressed Wilder’s reaction to his corner stopping the fight, and shared little optimism that Wilder could ever beat Tyson Fury.

Starting off with Wilder’s frustration towards his trainer Mark Breland, who threw in the towel to stop the fight, Smith said while he has told his coaches the same thing about throwing in the towel, Wilder already had a rematch clause in his contract.

“Let’s be real here, he was fighting Tyson Fury no matter what because they both had rematch clauses,” Smith said. “So like you’re going to fight this guy whether you beat him or not, you have to fight him again. What I’m trying to do is speak from two completely different perspectives here. From my perspective where I’m at as a fighter, keep that God damn towel in your God damn bucket, I don’t want anything to do with it. But if I’m going to take myself out of it, one, boxing doesn’t need any more injuries or any more tragedies to happen. With heavyweights that weigh 270-pounds, throwing shots at your head and you’re not blocking most of them? That’s a bad look and it’s really dangerous.”

After being asked if he was buying into the idea that Wilder had no chance to beat Fury in that fight or in the future, Smith didn’t hold back. Although he admitted he’s a fan of Wilder, he doesn’t see him beating Fury in the future.

“I will tell you Deontay Wilder has no shot ever to beat Tyson Fury,” Smith said. “I’m a fan and I love his mentality. I love the way he fights, I love everything Deontay Wilder stands for. He can’t beat Tyson Fury.

Smith also gave his take on why Wilder delivered such a disappointing performance in the ring.

“From the outside [Wilder] looks emotionally exhausted in some of those interviews but Tyson Fury can fight several different ways,” Smith said. “Now that he’s found a way to beat Deontay [Wilder], it wasn’t even close, I wouldn’t even call that a competition. It just looked like Deontay Wilder didn’t belong in there with Tyson Fury. I hate to say that. It hurts to say that because I love Deontay Wilder as a boxer, as a person, as a fighter, I love everything about him. He’s just not going to beat Tyson Fury, there’s too many holes.”

Even though he doesn’t see Wilder beating Fury in the future, Anthony Smith would go on to say he’s still interested in seeing a trilogy fight between the two — but not right away.

Do you agree with Anthony Smith? Does Tyson Fury have Deontay Wilder’s number for good?

on 2/26/2020