Shelly Finkel says Deontay Wilder suffered broken hand in loss to Tyson Fury, expects spring/summer return

Deontay Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel tells ESPN that his fighter took a setback during his epic third fight against Tyson Fury, breaking his patented right hand somewhere around the 6th round which hampered Wilder in the second half of the fight. All credit to Wilder because he still seemed to throw that right hand as often as he could, which much have been pretty excruciating with the kind of force he puts behind it.

Wilder is scheduled to undergo surgery on one of the middle metacarpals and will be sidelined for roughly three-and-a-half months before he’ll be able to resume boxing activities. Even still, Finkel is planning on Wilder’s return which he expects to come sometime in the coming spring.

“He’ll fight sometime in the spring or early summer as long as he’s healthy and he’s good and he’s up to it,” Finkel said. “He’s still in pain with the hand and his equilibrium was off, somewhere around the third round (Fury connected behind the ear), that’s why his balance wasn’t the same.

“He feels he trained so hard and then the two incidents — no disrespect at all to Fury — he put in all that effort and wasn’t able to fight him healthy.”

Finkel would continue by looking at the silver lining in Wilder’s loss, saying that he gained more respect in losing this particular fight than he has in many of his previous wins, showcasing his heart, will, and determination. That wasn’t enough to get a win, of course, but there’s no doubt Wilder fought valiantly for as long as he could muster.