He declared he would be willing to pay for the funeral of his mandatory challenger.
WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder also swore it’s legal to kill an opponent inside the boxing ring and at the same time get paid for it.
Wilder, 33, appeared hopelessly locked with the devil in a lightless madman’s cave.
Wilder next came out in the open and did his job.
Ferocious and unforgiving, the American heavyweight champion snapped into concerned brotherly mode after a first-round demolition of Dominic Breazeale in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday.
The stoppage was quick and numbing.
Wilder hugged the vanquished challenger.
“I told him I love him and, of course, I want him to go home to his family,” the 33-year-old Wilder, 41-0-1, declared after completing a bloodless one-round job.
The swiftness, a theatrical delight to fight aficionados, was clinical and neat.
Sobriety dawned upon Wilder, whose crude dirty attitude in the lead-up to the Brooklyn main event drew unusual attention and criticism. The WBC also vowed to call him in for questioning.
In the end though, what surfaced was the need for Wilder to resort to vengeful theater to help sell his title defense against an obscure colorless foe.
All in the game; to each his own trick to sell his brand in the messy heavyweight marketplace.
It was no masterpiece but Wilder nonetheless delivered.
He played the fool, but in Wilder’s case, he can only be as good or bad as his next opponent.
At least, there was none of the nonsense and barbarity prevailing in mixed martial arts.
He’s now listed among heavyweight greats who have made nine successive title defenses.
He preached with unconcealed glee: “When you get into a fight and settle your differences as men, hold up your gloves, this is what sport is all about.”
End of successful show.