Deontay Wilder: I want Joshua or Fury in October or November

By Boxing News - 06/21/2016 - Comments

wilder8

By Jeff Aranow: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder says he’s ready to fight a unification match against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua or IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury if they win their next fights and if they’re interested in fighting him. Wilder says he’s wants to fight either of those guys.

Whether a unification fight takes place between one of those to British champions will depend on them winning, and Wilder winning his next fight against Chris Arreola on July 16. Of course, it also will depend on Joshua or Fury’s promoters being open to letting them fight Wilder in a risky unification match.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to match him against Fury in November. Fury says he would like to fight Joshua or Wilder. Fury would likely take the bigger money fight against Joshua, however.

If he’s going to take a risky fight against Wilder or Joshua, he’ll probably go with the bigger payday fight against Joshua.

“I think it was a great move by Showtime to do that [to sign Joshua], because they kind of looked into the future a little,” said Wilder to Thaboxingvoice.com. “It’s no doubt if he keeps winning, I’m definitely going to keep winning, and we’re going to meet. I think that will be a great fight for the fans. I’m looking forward to that day when it comes, because my mission is to obtain all the belts. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m definitely looking forward to that one. We don’t have to worry which network will have it; that’s already a sealed deal. That gets one of the big problems out of the way, the networking. Now we just got to determine when it’s going to happen, but I don’t think it will be a big problem. I’ll leave it up to them for whenever they feel like they’re ready,” said Wilder.

YouTube video

The Showtime network recently signed Joshua to a multi-fight deal in the United States to have his fights televised over there. Wilder is also with Showtime. With the two fighters on the same network, this removes any obstacles they might otherwise have if one of them were with HBO and the other fighting for Showtime. The only thing that can get in the way of Joshua and Wilder fighting is if their promoters don’t want it, or if they get beaten in the near future.

Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) has a title defense this Saturday night against unbeaten American Dominic Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England. The Joshua-Breazeale fight will be televised on Sky Box Office pay-per-view. Joshua is the heavy favorite to win the fight with the oddsmakers.

Breazeale has looked shaky in recent matches against Amir Mansour and Fred Kassi. Those were fights where Breazeale took a lot of shots and failed to distinguish himself. He beat Mansour on an injury stoppage. Kassi appeared to do enough to deserve a win over Breazeale, but the judges weren’t with the unbeaten American fighter in giving him a questionable decision.

“I don’t want to make excuses for him or for myself. I believe that they feel that there are ready,” said Wilder. “Once you get a title, you kind of get that spirit of ‘I’m the best.’ Even his promoter says he wants the fight sooner rather than later. I’m ready whenever, even after this fight. I’m ready whenever, because after this fight, it’s either me and him or the winner of Klitschko-Fury; one of the two. I want to end this year out with a big bang. I had one moment stolen away from me, and I know I’ll get another moment and I want it at the end of the year; maybe in October or November. That would be great. If Fury wins, I would love have him in October or November due to the circumstances, we’re both fighting in July. He has a July 9th fight. I got a July 16th fight. We’re both in the same month. That gives us a proper amount of time to fight, or even Joshua. He’s fighting before us. That’s plenty of time. I’m always ready, man. I want either one. We’ll see what happens,” said Wilder.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Has expressed interest in matching Joshua against Wilder, but it’s unknown if he’d be willing to make that fight in 2016. Hearn has other options for Joshua to milk his title against local British fighters like Dereck Chisora, David Price or Dillian Whyte in 2016 Those are three winnable fights for Joshua if he chooses to fight any of them.

Joshua also has the possibility of fighting Fury this year or in 2017. There’s also the possibility of Joshua fighting David Haye next year. Hearn can’t wait too long on the Haye fight because he’s getting older and he could eventually get beaten by someone in the near future if Hearn waits too long before matching Joshua against him.