Video: Deontay Wilder wants Joshua by end of 2017

By Boxing News - 05/01/2017 - Comments

Image: Video: Deontay Wilder wants Joshua by end of 2017

By Scott Gilfoid: Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder says he absolutely wants a unification fight against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua by the end of this year for all the marbles in the division. This would be for bragging rights says Wilder. The talented 6’7” Deontay plans on picking up the WBO heavyweight strap from Joseph Parker before that, so that he’ll be coming into the Joshua unification fight with the WBC and WBO titles in his possession.

Assuming that Joshua beats Wladimir Klitschko in a rematch, he would have the IBF and WBA heavyweight titles to put up for grabs against the big punching Wilder when the two of them meet. It was thought by many boxing fans that Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) would wait until 2018 before he went after the 6’6” Joshua, but that’s not the case. Wilder wants Joshua this year. What might have changed Wilder’s mind to push for the fight sooner was how vulnerable and flawed Joshua looked last Saturday night against the 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in their fight on Sky Box Office PPV, HBO and Showtime Championship Boxing from Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Joshua had to climb up off the canvas in round 6 to come back and knock Wadimir out in the 11th. Wilder might feel that Joshua isn’t good enough to let the Joshua-Wilder fight marinate for another year, because he looks really shaky right now. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been blabbering about him being the best fighter in world boxing, but few believe that after seeing how horrible he looked against Klitschko. Hearn comes across as a wild-eyed, out of touch promoter, who doesn’t seem to have his feet firmly planted on the ground when it comes to him judging the talent of his fighter Joshua.

“Like I said before, it’s about unification,” said Wilder about his desire to face Joshua at in a unification fight. “I want to get that other belt, and at the end of the year, we’ll have a winner takes all for bragging rights to be considered the best man in the heavyweight division,” said Wilder.

As much as I’d like to see Joshua-Wilder in 2017, I don’t think that fight has any chance of happening this year. Look at how much time is left in the year. There’s only 7 months remaining. Joshua is going to need at least 3-4 months to finish licking his wounds from the Klitschko fight. We’re probably talking about Joshua not being back inside the ring until September or October for a rematch against Klitschko. After that fight, Joshua will almost surely be done for the year, because he’ll need time to recover from that likely grueling fight.

I think the Joshua-Klitschko II rematch will be much harder for Joshua than the first one. Joshua will get hit a lot more with Wladimir’s power shots, because the Ukrainian realizes now that he can hurt Joshua with his right hands and more importantly, he can hit him whenever he wants with those shots. Joshua was like a punching bag out there in the ring last Saturday night. Wladimir couldn’t miss with his right hand.

It was lucky for Joshua that Wladimir couldn’t land his big left hooks, because he would have knocked Joshua out if he’d landed one of those punches cleanly, I lost track of how many left hooks Wladimir missed against Joshua. They had knockout intention on them, but he couldn’t connect with them. Wladimir’s hand-eye coordination didn’t allow him to land those shots.

“Listen, I just defeated the bogeyman of the heavyweight division, so what does that make me?” said Bellew about his win over an injured one-legged David Haye last March. “Listen, out of all the heavyweight champions, I have the best man on my ledger than any of those guys, but now Anthony’s the man. He’s taken the king’s throne. I’m going to dance,” said Bellew.

I’m not sure what Bellew is squawking about when he says, “I’m going to dance.” Does he mean that he wants a piece of the Joshua fight too, or is he simply saying that he’s open to fighting for a world title against Deontay Wilder and/or Joseph Parker? If Bellew wants to fight Joshua, then he needs to start putting the heat on his promoter Eddie Hearn to make the fight happen.

Hearn also promoted Joshua, so it shouldn’t be a difficult fight for him to put together if that’s what he wants to do. But with all the options available to Joshua, I don’t see why he would want to fight the 34-year-old Belew anytime soon. I could understand a mismatch like that taking place when Joshua has time for a nice little stay busy tune-up level fight in a voluntary defense, but it would be a dreadful fight for him to make right now.

The British boxing public has had 4 years of seeing Joshua fight fodder opposition one after another. Now that he’s finally fought someone good in his match against Klitschko, it would be sad news if Joshua were to go back to fighting fodder again in a title defense against Bellew. I think Bellew should prove that he can beat an uninjured quality heavyweight in the division, because his 11th round knockout win over an injured David Haye on March 4 of this year is a tainted win in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. Haye was winning the fight until tearing his right Achilles tendon in round 6.

Bellew took over AFTER the injury and looked incredibly bad in being fought to a standstill against Haye. It was embarrassing to watch. What I don’t understand though is how or why Bellew chooses to brag about his win over Haye, and mention it constantly to the boxing public, as if he achieved something special. If your opponent suffers an injury that allows you to win, how do you really gain anything from that? I don’t understand how Bellew can feel good about himself in winning that way. Haye was standing on the outside and not getting hit when he stepped wrong on his right foot, and tore his Achilles. There were rumors before the fight that Haye had a leg injury. You have to wonder whether he came into the fight with the problem.

Showtime Boxing president Stephen Espinoza wants to see Joshua fight in the U.S to help build up his name. Joshua has a contract with Showtime to have his fights televised in the U.S. He still hasn’t fought there though. It would help Joshua become a star if he would start fighting in the U.S a couple times a year.

“Ultimately from the US perspective, the ultimate destination would seem to be – at some point in the next year – hopefully Joshua versus Wilder,” said Espinoza to skysports.com. “I believe he is going to take a little bit of time off after this fight. Whether there is a rematch or not, remains to be seen, but I know that having a fight in the US, in the next couple of fights, is definitely a priority.”

Unless Joshua loses to Wladimir in the rematch, I think a fight between him and Wilder would be a good possibility in 2018. There aren’t that many big names for Joshua to fight if he gets past Wladimir again. There’s Wilder, Luis Ortiz, Joseph Parker and the winner of the Fres Oquendo vs. Shannon Briggs fight. Espinoza is going to do some persuading with Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, because if he can continue to sellout the 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium in London, England, then I don’t see him coming over to the U.S fighting in front of a likely much smaller crowd of 7,000 fans.

There aren’t a lot of big name heavyweights in the U.S for Joshua to fight over there right now. To build up the Joshua-Wilder fight, Joshua would need to fight someone like Jarrell Miller, Luis Ortiz and Carlos Takam over in the States. I cannot see Hearn letting Ortiz get anywhere near his golden goose Joshua, especially in the States. It would be too risky for Joshua.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSnBM8yzWuk