Deontay Wilder's unshakable belief in his power both a blessing and a curse

They say you learn more in defeat than you do in victory. Not in the case of Deontay Wilder.

That’s not to denigrate the former WBC heavyweight champion, more a straightforward appraisal of an individual whose almost evangelical self-belief means that even being humbled twice by Tyson Fury could not put a dent in his formidable psyche. If anything, it made it stronger.

Whereas Anthony Joshua’s reaction to defeats by Andy Ruiz and Oleksandr Usyk was introspection and a sincere desire to investigate the root cause of the setbacks, Wilder’s response to adversity was to double down on everything he is as a fighter, and everything he stands for as a person.

And that's the Wilder who will face the New Zealander Joseph Parker in Riyadh on Saturday night. Same as the old one.

Athletes are capable of all sorts of mental gymnastics to square away defeat. Anything and everyone could be to blame, just not them. The ego must survive intact if the relentless pursuit of victory is to resume.

In Wilder's case, in the aftermath of defeat by Fury in February 2020, the first of his career, he really did blame anything and everyone.

The elaborate costume he wore to ring left him limp, his cornerman Mark Breland betrayed him, Fury had removed the padding from his gloves, Fury had egg weights inside his gloves … As time went by, the conspiracy theories became ever more egregious, and Wilder indulged pretty much all of them.

There simply had to be some nefarious reason for the "Bronze Bomber", at that point 42-0-1 with 40 knockouts, to lose in such a fashion.

Deontay Wilder is predicting an