Deontay Wilder’s camp wants fight in December or January

By Boxing News - 10/03/2015 - Comments

1-Screen Shot 2015-09-26 at 10.51.17 PMBy Scott Gilfoid: Fresh off his impressive 11th round knockout win over #11 WBC Johann Duhaupas on September 26th of last month, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) could be back in action as early as December against an opponent still to be determined.

Wilder’s manager/trainer Jay Deas wants to see the 6’7” Deontay fighting in December or January while they wait on the negotiations with #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin to be concluded. World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman said that Wilder needs to fight Povetkin next, as Wilder has already used up his voluntary defenses.

Povetkin isn’t ready to fight Wilder fight now because he’s got a mismatch scheduled on November 4th against Mariusz Wach in Russia. Wilder and Deas don’t just want to sit around waiting on Povetkin for a hundred years before he’s ready to fight, so they want to keep busy by getting in one more fight before the Povetkin clash. I

f Povetkin is ready to step inside the ring to fight Wilder in December, then so be it. They’ll likely fight him then, but if he needs more time before he’s ready to take the fight in 2016, then they don’t want to be sitting around collecting dust doing nothing.

“From my personal opinion, if Povetkin is fighting in November and he has a tough fight in November, then he won’t be able to fight in December and I don’t see any reason why we should wait,” Deas said to al.com.

Deas makes a good point. I mean, if Wilder is just going to be sitting around doing nothing while Povetkin takes his next fight, and then possibly licks his wounds from the fight for a couple of months afterwards, then it makes a lot of sense for Wilder to stay busy by fighting the likes of Chris Arreola, Tony Thompson, or Carlos Takam. Wilder wants to be one of the heavyweight champions who is busy and constantly fighting. He’s old school like the late heavyweight great Joe Louis.

It works out better for the WBC if Wilder stays busy and fights as often as he can because the WBC will get sanctioning fees each time Wilder fights. As such, if Wilder can fight 4-6 times per year, the WBC will be swimming in the cash from the sanctioning fees they collect from each of Wilder’s fights. It’s all good for Wilder and the WBC the more he fights.

“Why should we wait on him? Deontay Wilder is the heavyweight champion of the world. If he’s ready to fight in December, that’s one thing. If he fights Wach and he’s not ready in December or January, then we’ll fight when he’s ready.”

I totally agree with Mr. Deas. If Wilder is ready to fight in December, which he likely will, then whose fault is it if Povetkin isn’t ready to step inside the ring to face him at that time?

The Wilder-Povetkin negotiations will begin in mid-October, and who knows how long they’ll drag out. For all we know, they could drag out, forcing the WBC to call a purse bid. But even with a purse bid, we’re still talking about a fight that won’t take place until 2016. Wilder and Deas don’t want to sit around doing nothing while they wait for the fight negotiations to be eventually completed. They want to keep fighting, and that’s good for Wilder because he needs more experience so that he can keep improving.

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I for one would like to see Wilder take on someone like Tony Thompson or Chris Arreola in December or January. Heck, I wouldn’t even mind seeing Wilder face someone like Lucas Browne or Fred Kassi. Those are all good opponents for a voluntary defense for Wilder. He could bring them over to Birmingham, Alabama like he did with Duhaupas, and sell a lot of tickets. The Duhaupas fight almost sold out the Legacy Arena in Birmingham.

If Wilder could get the likes of Chris Arreola or Tony Thompson as his next opponent, then I could definitely see a fight against one of them selling out the Arena. We’re talking over 9,000 tickets, and that’s a decent gate. Wilder would be able to get a lot of cash for a fight like that and walk home with a payday of possibly more than $1 million. Yeah, the taxes and expenses on the money would likely reduce the amount to $600,000 or so, but that’s still good money for Wilder to make rather sitting around making nothing by not fighting.



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