Wilder vows to retire if he loses to Stiverne

Deontay Wilder will rematch Bermane Stiverne on Nov. 4.

While looking towards a potential heavyweight showdown with Anthony Joshua (which will hopefully happen sometime in the near future), Deontay Wilder, who is scheduled to rematch Bermane Stiverne on November 4th, wants to let it be known that if he somehow manages to lose this upcoming fight he’ll be retiring from the sport.

"Y'all can quote me on this. Y'all can put this on paper. Y'all can put this at the top of the headlines, because the way I'm feeling about boxing right now, if Bermane Stiverne beats me I will retire. You can put that down," Wilder said during a conference call to talk to boxing reporters about the rematch on Tuesday. "I will be out of the way. Boxing ain't gotta worry about me no more [if I lose] because it ain't really doing me no good anyway. Nobody don't really want to fight."

Wilder has been looking to get a signature win on his resume after taking lots of criticism about his level of opposition, especially for a world champion, but he has had a few notable fights fall through the cracks with opponents testing positive for banned substances — namely Alexander Povetkin and Luis Ortiz.

"All I wanted to do is prove that I am the best, and the best don't wanna fight, so what's the point of me being in this sport?" he said. "If Bermane beats me -- if he beats me -- y'all don't have to hear about me no more. I'm done. That's how serious it is. It don't get more serious than that. So let the games begin.”

Wilder will enter this fight as a sizable favorite to win, which mostly takes into account how decisively he won the first match-up with Stiverne in early 2015.