The coronavirus pandemic has given Deontay Wilder plenty of time to reflect on — and recover from — his Feb. 22 loss to Tyson Fury.
As a guest on "The PBC Podcast," Wilder revealed that he recently had surgery to repair a torn left biceps that he suffered in that rematch.
"Recovery's going well," Wilder said on the podcast, which was posted Wednesday. "I'm in (physical) therapy. I ended up injuring it during my last fight, somewhere up in there. But everything's going great with it. You know, that's another thing, I'm just focusing on recovery, getting myself back to full health and getting ready to (return). Hopefully, this corona stuff will be out the way and we can get back to camp, and get ready to go again sometime at the end of the year."
That being said, the former WBC champion has had ample time to reflect on what went wrong in that seventh-round TKO defeat to Fury — a bout that marked Wilder's first pro loss.
"Everything that happened (wrong), it happened the last 15 minutes into the fight," Wilder said, building on his previous notion that his 40-pound costume to the ring gave him dead legs during the rematch.
"It's a lot of things that went on," he continued. "It's a lot of things that I don't even want to talk about at this moment in time. I'm still reflecting on certain things and I can't believe the things that happened, it happened to me and it happened to me at that point in time of my career."
The February rematch had Fury savagely pummeling Wilder toward two knockdowns before smothering "The Bronze Bomber" enough in the seventh round for his corner to throw in the towel, awarding the British fighter with the WBC heavyweight championship of the world.
The 34-year-old Wilder walked into the fight undefeated as the most-feared puncher in boxing, with 41 of his 43 fights ending by the way of knockout. But he claims that something just didn't feel right that night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
"Even when I took off my mask, the things that I was doing," he explained. "I've been in this sport a very long time, so people automatically know how I am. People that know boxing know that wasn't Deontay Wilder on that night. I was a zombie on that night.
"I wasn't myself. I felt like a zombie in there. I felt ... there's a lot of things I can't say."
But what Wilder is comfortable saying right now is the feud between he and Fury is far from over and that his first pro loss has given him a sense of renewed "hunger."
"It's not over," Wilder said. "In my eyes, I don't see Fury as a champion.
"He ain't the champion yet," he continued, "because we've still got one more fight left."
Wilder added: "I'm never down about losing because it only makes me stronger to come back and to overcome and conquer. I know this is going to be the biggest moment in time in my life, coming back around again."
The Fury-Wilder trilogy was originally set for this summer before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed it to at least the fall. With Wilder having revealed his biceps surgery, perhaps the later the better for "The Bronze Bomber."