This past Monday, former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder underwent a 90-minute surgery in Atlanta to repair the metacarpal bone on his right hand, nine days after suffering his knockout loss to Tyson Fury in their trilogy fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Wilder went down in the third, but then dropped Fury twice in the fourth. Fury rallied back, eventually dropping Wilder again in the tenth and then again in the eleventh for the stoppage, which allowed him to retain the WBC strap.

“I believe he broke his hand in the fourth round when he knocked Fury down twice,” said trainer Malik Scott, who texted Zenger News. “Hey, surgery went well. Deontay is in recovery as we speak.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was during the first knockdown [in the fourth] when he really turned everything over and delivered that punch. But it is what it is. Deontay’s right hand was hurt, but he just fought through it.”

The surgical procedure was handled by Dr. Saadiq El-Amin of the Orthopaedic Sports & Medicine Institute in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Wilder’s co-manager, Shelly Finkel, still expects Wilder to come back to the ring in the first half of 2022.

“Deontay is not sure exactly if it was a punch to the head or an uppercut, but he broke his right hand at the metacarpal bone behind the third knuckle,” Finkel told Zenger.

“The doctor called me afterward and told me that the surgery went well. Deontay will be out for about three months, and then we’ll look at returning in the spring of next year.”