By Jeff Aranow: Deontay Wilder ripped into IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua during his open media workout, telling the journalists and fans that AJ has been avoiding him and mentioning other heavyweight with intention of facing him. WBC champion Wilder says Joshua doesn’t want to sign the contract to face him.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME)
Wilder doesn’t seem too worried about his next opponent Luis Ortiz. Wilder is concentrating more on Joshua than Ortiz, which tells you that he doesn’t view the Cuban fighter as much of a threat to him. Wilder should know what Ortiz is capable of because he’s the one that picked him out for this fight. Wilder could have taken a soft opponent from the bottom of the World Boxing Council’s top 15 rankings, but instead he chose Ortiz from the No3 spot, and he could be a very tough opponent.
The unbeaten Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) is pushing hard to try and get Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn to make the fight happen, but they’re not biting at his pressure. Hearn is talking about wanting to match Joshua against former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who is in no condition to share the ring with him anytime soon. Joshua is looking to take the safer path in targeting fighters that he has a good chance of beating like Dillian Whyte, Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin and Joseph Parker.
”Anthony Joshua call everybody name but my name, Wilder said. ”Anthony Joshua [is] talking about Dillian Whyte. He’s talking about Jarrell Miller. He don’t even mention Deontay Wilder’s name. In fact, he says I’m too easy. He says he’ll ram his jab down my throat! No homo! He says he’ll knock me out with one punch. But they don’t want to sign that contract though,” Wilder said.
Wilder is going to have to keep taking care of business in defending his WBC welterweight title for as long as possible until Joshua and Matchroom Sport are ready to make the unification fight with him. It doesn’t appear that Joshua or his promoter Eddie Hearn want to fight him. If they wait long enough, Wilder might come undone and get beaten by one of his challengers. It might even happen as soon as March 3, when Wilder, 32, defends his title in the U.S against Cuban Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) on Showtime Boxing. Ortiz is better than most of the guys that Joshua has fought as a pro. The only fighter that might be better than Ortiz is Wladimir Klitschko, who Joshua had a tough time beating last year in April. Wilder is going to have to prove that he can get past Ortiz if he wants to stay in the running for a unification fight against Joshua in the future. Joshua has a tough bout of his own on March 31 against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker.
“Ya’ll looking at the best heavyweight in the world,” Wilder said. ”And he right here, from America. Ya’ll fighting for heavyweights! Put them in the ring with me, see what’s going to’ happen. I’m going to knock ‘em out. I promise you that. Any heavyweight, listen, any one of you! And all you scrubs calling my name out, don’t worry. Once I handle what I got to do, I got you too. I promise you that,” Wilder said.
Wilder is currently one of the 3 best heavyweights in the world with Joshua and Joseph Parker being the other 2. The winner of the Joshua-Parker fight will narrow down the top heavyweights to just 2 fights, Wilder and Joshua. When those 2 eventually face each other, the boxing world will finally discover who the No.1 fighter is in the division. Until that happens, it’s all speculation about who the best guy is in the heavyweight division. Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) wants to prove himself against Joshua right now, but the feelings are mutual.
The 28-year-old Joshua is in no hurry whatsoever to test himself against Wilder. Joshua wants to become the first billion-dollar boxer, and I guess the best way to do that is to be careful to make the right fights that are winnable at the right time. Waiting might not work with Joshua. Wilder is not aging yet. He’s 4 years older than the 28-year-old Joshua, but he’s not showing any signs of slippage. If Joshua is going to try and wait Wilder out, he might need to give it a lot of time. The way Joshua has looked in his last 2 fights, he might be the one that is negatively impacted more than Wilder is by the passage of time. Joshua is hurting himself with his weight lifting. He’s put too much muscle weight on since he turned pro in 2013, and he’s slowed down and his stamina has taken a hit. The heard doesn’t care the weight is fat of muscle. The heart still must work harder to pump blood to all that weight. That’s why it would be good for Joshua to lose 20 to 40 lbs. to lean out so he can improve his stamina and not run out of gas like we’ve seen from him in his last 2 fights against Carlos Takam and Wladimir Klitschko.
“Here’s the deal right here. I’ll go anywhere! I’ll go to his home! I’ll go to his front yard,
“ Wilder said. ”If [Luis] Ortiz lookin’, Ortiz I’m going to whoop your [expletive] too, boy. I promise you.”
The 6’4” Ortiz is a lot more solidly built than Wilder. If Ortiz is able to land his shots, he could hurt Wilder and knock him out. Oriz’s hand speed has slowed lately, and he didn’t look great in his last 3 fights against Daniel Martz, Dave Allen and Malik Scott. Ortiz’s power was good, but he looked glacially slow in those 3 contests. If Wilder can land his big punches first, Ortiz will never get a shot at landing his own big shots. Wilder’s last opponent Bermane Stiverne never had the chance to and his power shots because he was badly hurt from the first big right hand of the fight. It could be the same thing for Ortiz if he’s not able to get out of the way of Wilder’s punches.
