“I played everything,” Wilder joked to BoxingScene. “What got me into boxing is when I realized that I couldn't go to university no more to pursue my career in a professional sport. I had to lean on the school of hard knocks, you know – that's whooping people's ass. I knew that being a fighter, I could be professional and gain money for my daughter.”
“I had a friend that we were in college with, we used to talk about what are the things we were trying to do to achieve our goals, and I told him that I wouldn't be able to attend anymore because I had a daughter that was on the way,” Wilder recalled. “I said, ‘I'm going to start boxing.’ He thought it was a great idea because, like I said, I never looked for trouble, but trouble always found me. They always see me knocking on heads, you know, knocking people out even before getting into boxing. So he thought it was a great idea. I ended up joining a gym, a local gym that I had no idea about. I went to the gym, walked in there and met my longtime trainer, Jay Deas, who is my co-manager now. The rest is history.”
“My only plan coming into boxing was just to risk my life to save a life, with a girl that was born with spina bifida,” he said. “I told her when she was 1 years old, I promised her that your daddy would be a champion and be able to support you beyond your belief. She didn't understand, she was only 1, but I knew I had the fire in me. I had the belief in myself that I would make it to where I needed to be and support her. I've overachieved that promise.”
“I mean, I've been selfless all my life. Ever since I was 12 years old, I've been giving money, I've been taking care of people,” Wilder said. “I've been doing a lot of great deeds for people. Unfortunately, those with great hearts always are the ones that get taken advantage of. And even though I've been taken advantage of many, many times, that never changed me as a person. I still done over and beyond for people, even to the point of me getting betrayed, backstabbed, lied to, stolen from, even from my own siblings.”
“It's just come to a point in time where I just say, you know what, it's enough,” said Wilder. “Enough is enough. I've done enough for everyone, now it's time to be selfish. And this is the selfish version of myself, the healed version. I don't say I'm back, I say I'm back and I'm better, because it's the healed version mentally, physically and emotionally for me. So I'm looking to have fun for the rest of my years to come.”
“I want to unify the division,” Wilder said. “That one goal I set in the division – to unify the division – and I never had an opportunity to do so. And hopefully doing the things that I need to do, especially come Saturday night and moving forward, that I will once and for all get that opportunity.
