Deas quit his job as on televisio to become one of the most followed trainers on the planet
Boxing has a habit of throwing unusual characters into the spotlight, but Jay Deas’s path to the MGM Grand for Saturday’s showstopping heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury still takes some beating. Deas quit his job as a television crime reporter – murders were his speciality – to become one of the most followed trainers on the planet, now guiding one the most dangerous heavyweight fighters in history in Wilder.
Cynics will say that the pulpy world of true life crime reporting is only a small hop from boxing’s occasionally lurid reality, but it was still something of a leap of faith for Deas – albeit one that has now been handsomely rewarded.
“I was reporting in Tuscaloosa and then down in Panama City Beach, in Florida,” he told Telegraph Sport. “There were some incredible stories, but my brother was starting a boxing gym, he asked me to come help and like a completely insane fool I said ‘yes’. I came back and we started Skyy Boxing gym together.
“When you tell your parents that you’re going to throw away your college education and television career and start a boxing gym in an area that hasn’t had a boxing show in over a decade, it doesn’t go over very well. Ultimately it’s worked out very well for us.”
Deas is glancing over at Wilder, his fellow Alabaman, when he says this, and as well he might. The ‘Bronze Bomber’ is formidable prospect, and a trainer’s dream: 6ft 7in tall, with not an ounce of body fat and a right hand to die for. Deas knew there was something special when Wilder walked into the gym for the first time.
“I think really he passed the eye test, which some people do,” he recalled. “He was clearly very athletic. It was readily apparent he was utterly serious about it.” Deas had attended the same Central High School in Tuscaloosa as Wilder, some 20 years earlier. Yet Wilder’s feats as a wide receiver in American Football, and as a basketball player, were known around town. It was a couple of weeks later that Deas first saw Wilder’s true talents.
“We actually put him in a sparring match. Deontay knocked down a professional journeyman heavyweight who had had 40 fights. It was all arms and legs and heart and punch, but he wound up and hit. The guy who was on the ground looked at me with a smile and said: ‘Whatever you do, keep him.’
“Yes Deontay was unorthodox and awkward. For a while we tried to curb that. We tried to make him a technically proficient, sound boxer. He can certainly do that, but we decided after a while he’s quite good at the unorthodox stuff and it works for him. Even Mike Tyson had his own style.”
There is a deep synergy between fighter and trainer, which you can see as they move effortlessly in and out of each other’s space. That comes from nearly 20 years of a working relationship. “A few things I’ve learned about him is if he says it, he means it, and that you should never curb his dreams. If Deontay says he’s going to own the entire island of Jamaica one day, you don’t want to say you can’t. It’s what drives him. What he’s taught me more than anything else is don’t believe the hype of others – believe in yourself.
“You’ve got to remember these guys walk up three steps in front of millions of people in a sport where you fight. It’s not normal. To still do it and think nobody in the world can beat me, it takes a special, special person to do that.”
Deas, who is also co-manager of Wilder, was delighted when Fury accepted the first fight, although he admits that the Lancastrian is a puzzle in his own right. “I’m a kid of the eighties and I never did figure that darn Rubik’s Cube out. But it can be figured out. I mean that as the greatest compliment to Tyson Fury. He’s in and out and tall and short. He’s lengthy. He’s athletic. He’s lefty, he’s righty and he can give you all those looks inside a single round.
“The thing you find yourself doing is being hypnotised – even Wladimir Klitschko was to a certain extent. That’s what you can’t let happen. You’ve got to make some headway early and it’s hard to do because he’s a tremendous fighter.”
There are great spoils for the victor. And Deas – with his man Wilder – are intent on being in the record books. “The eighties was Mike Tyson, then Evander Holyfield, then Lennox Lewis, then Wladimir Klitschko,” Deas said. “The winner of this fight becomes that next guy, 100 per cent, and we believe it will be Deontay Wilder.”