Deontay Wilder has trimmed down for his fight against Robert Helenius after feeling "sluggish" in his defeat by Tyson Fury last year.

Wilder, 36, looks for his first win in almost three years when returns to the ring on Saturday night against former sparring partner Robert Helenius. 'The Bronze Bomber' hasn't fought since being knocked out by heavyweight champion Fury in their epic trilogy fight, but Wilder looks to begin the road back to title contention with a win against Helenius in New York.

In his year away from the ring, Wilder has considerably trimmed down after weighing a career-heavy 238lb for his third fight against Fury and last night scaled 214lb. The American weighed in at 212lb for their first fight in 2018 but he made the strategic decision to bulk up in size for their meeting last October in the hopes of knocking Fury out.


Insisting the extra weight made him perform worse on the night, Wilder explained why he went on a weight loss journey ahead of his comeback fight. “Weight is not going to be what we worry about in this fight or fights in the future,” he said.

“We gained a lot of weight the last fight, just [because] of others’ expectations of seeing my body a certain way. I was interested in seeing my body frame in a certain weight as well. But at this moment in time, I go back to what I’m used to and what’s comfortable to me and what’s comfortable with my body frame and that’s gonna be around maybe in the 220s or maybe under.

"I felt a little sluggish, a little heavy. I never been 240lb ever in my life before, but it was an experiment that I wanted to try and we did what we had to do to get the weight put on there. That’s an experience up in the history books for me. Te only way to become wise is apply knowledge to life and we’ve gained a lot of knowledge from that, now we know what to do moving forward.”

The former heavyweight champion claims to have sparred almost 600 rounds in less than a month in preparation for Helenius, who is unbeaten in over three years. 'The Nordic Nightmare' upset the odds when he knocked out Adam Kownacki in the last boxing event before the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled all sporting events, with Helenius proving his win was no fluke by stopping Kownacki in their rematch on the undercard of Fury vs Wilder 3.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxin...-news-28241037