Deontay Wilder speaks exclusively with Mirror Fighting on Anthony Joshua fight and MMA move
Deontay Wilder has poured doubts on a blockbuster showdown with Anthony Joshua by insisting he would prefer to face the winner of Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua and Wilder are fighting different opponents on the same card in Saudi Arabia on December 23 with a view to facing each other provided they get through their respective bouts unscathed.
Joshua takes on Fury’s former foe Otto Wallin while Wilder squares off against ex-WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman recently declared that he is looking at the two fights as an unofficial elimination tournament to decide the next mandatory challenger for the green belt.
“In itself it is a natural WBC elimination tournament. You have Wilder, No 1, Joshua, you have Parker, you have Otto Wallin, all those are highly ranked in the WBC. After December 23 we’re going to see a different picture in the rankings,” Sulaiman told Sky Sports.
“It looks like Wilder and Joshua are on a collision course. That could very well be a final elimination to determine a mandatory contender for the WBC title. Unbelievable. That would be a dream come true for the fans.
“I am very happy to see the promoters collaborating, the managers, the fighters. Of course, there’s big money involved but you have to make it. You can dream of things, we have been dreaming for this and this is the perfect moment to get into another era of boxing. So we will be supporting as much as we can.”
If Joshua and Wilder get their hands raised at the back end of the month then they will likely be thrust into a final eliminator against each other. However, the ‘Bronze Bomber’ has his eyes set on the other three major sanctioning body straps. “If you’ve got all the belts, you’re gonna have to fight me… That’s still my goal – wipe out the entire division,” said Wilder during a recent appearance on the Last Stand Podcast.
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Joshua and Wilder have been rumoured to face each other on several occasions only for the fight to fall through. The closest they came to getting a deal over the line was back in 2018 when both men were at the peak of their powers and held all four major sanctioning body world titles between them.
Wilder offered Joshua £41million ($50m) upfront to fight him but AJ rejected it on grounds that it ‘clashed with his partnerships’. Since then, offers have been floated around but they have never managed to get beyond initial talks until now.
Another obstacle facing the fight is a potential bout between Francis Ngannou and Wilder. The Cameroonian MMA star recently revealed that he has held his own talks with the American star.
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