WBC president interested in Wilder vs. Joshua fight

By Boxing News - 09/13/2016 - Comments

Image: WBC president interested in Wilder vs. Joshua fight

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman is interested in a unification match between World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder and IBF champion Anthony Joshua in the near future once Wilder comes back from his surgery on his injured right hand and bicep and fights the winner of the Bermane Stiverne vs. Alexander Povetkin fight.

Wilder, 30, isn’t expected back in the ring until the first quarter of 2017. He should be fighting the Stiverne-Povetkin winner at that time. Wilder has already said that he wants to fight Joshua and IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in the near future.

He’s just got to get healthy and back in the ring. Wilder suffered his hand and bicep injury in his last title defense against Chris Arreola last July in stopping him in the 8th round. Wilder suffered the injuries in the 4th after knocking Arreola to the canvas. Wilder got a little over anxious and hurt his right arm while looking to finish Arreola off.

“So we would see how medical treatment is going and first we’ll have the championship fight then we’ll go from there but I’m excited to see Joshua fight for the WBC title,” said Sulaiman to skysports.com. “Absolutely Joshua is a very important fighter for the WBC. He fought for the WBC International title and the WBC was the first organization to rank him.”

It’s unclear why Sulaiman is so interested in having Wilder fight Joshua for. It would seem like it shouldn’t matter who Wilder fights as long as it’s someone in the WBC’s top 15. But with the way that Sulaiman is carrying on, he appears to be very interested in having Joshua fight Wilder for the WBC title. A fight like that needs time to build it up.

You can’t rush these things. It’s got to marinate for two or three years before the Wilder-Joshua fight is worth making. Right now, the casual boxing fans in the U.S don’t have a clue who Joshua is. The hardcore fans obviously have heard of Joshua, but he’s not proven and he just finished fighting some weak heavyweights with major flaws in their games.

Joshua is supposed to be fighting Joseph Parker soon, and that should be a good fight that will at least show the boxing world whether Joshua has a chin or not. In the meantime, Wilder has to fight the winner of the Povetkin vs. Stiverne fight when he comes back from his injuries. It won’t be easy for Wilder to beat those talents because they’re both high quality fighters.

Wilder beat Stiverne last year by a 12 round decision to win his WBC title in January 2015. Wilder suffered a broken hand in the Stiverne fight. Now he’s broken the same hand again in the Arreola fight. Povetkin will have a good chance of beating Stiverne to get to the Wilder fight. Hopefully that fight can get done when Wilder comes back to the ring, but he needs to fight a solid heavyweight so he can start winning some boxing fans.

Wilder’s recent fights against Arreola, Artur Szpilka, Johann Duhaupas, and Eric Molina haven’t attracted much news. They were seen as mismatches by the fans, and yeah, they were mismatches in the end. Wilder needs to face solid heavyweights like Povetkin, Stiverne, Kubrat Pulev, Luis Ortiz, Alexander Ustinov, Parker, Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury and Hughie Fury.

Joshua’s next opponent still hasn’t been named for his November fight in Manchester. His promoter Eddie Hearn is taking his time in selecting who will be facing Joshua. It’s unclear what the deal is. He should have already nailed down Pulev by now for Joshua, because his next fight is only two months away.

I think it would be better to let the Joshua vs. Wilder fight wait a while before making it. They need to build the fight more in the U.S by having Joshua fight there three or four times to build up his name, because no one knows who he is. It’s not even really worth it for Wilder to fight the guy because the casual fans don’t know who he is in the U.S. The fans aren’t going to remember Joshua winning a controversial gold medal in the 2012 Olympics. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratings for a Wilder-Joshua fight are less than the ratings for Wilder’s recent fight against Chris Arreola. I’m just saying. the casual fans at least know who Arreola is in the U.S. I doubt that many know who Joshua is.