By Tim Royner: Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder did his thing last Saturday night in scoring his 39th career knockout in stopping the game Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz in the 10th round, but now he’s ready to finally face IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a unification fight for the fans.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) used his time under the spotlight after dispatching Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) to once again call out Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) to meet him later this year to find out which of the two are the best fighter in the heavyweight division.
The negotiations for the Joshua-Wilder fight are going nowhere currently die to Wilder asking for a 50-50 deal, which Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is not willing to accommodate. Hearn isn’t saying what he feels is an acceptable split for Wilder but given how adverse he is to the 50 percent demand, it would seem that it’s far below that number. Wilder might even have to accept a split in the 30 percent range for him to get the fight with Joshua.
Wilder already has proclaimed himself as the best heavyweight in boxing, but he just wants to prove it to the fans by him facing Joshua.
”How many times do I have to call him out? I’ve done enough, I’ve spoken enough. I’m the baddest man on the planet and whenever they’re ready I’m going to be ready,” Wilder said last Saturday. ”My goal and my mission is to unify the division. I want to prove to the world I am the best.”
Wilder wants to unify the heavyweight division, but he’s going to have to wait to get the Joshua fight. Wilder will also have to come down considerably in his purse demands for the fight to get made. Hearn wants Joshua to build his name in the U.S before he faces the 32-year-old Wilder at some point down the line.
While Hearn says a fight against Wilder is possible in 2018, it’s likely that he’s just saying that to help increase interest in Joshua’s upcoming fight against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker on March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Joshua vs. Parker will be televised on Sky Box Office in the UK and Showtime Boxing in the U.S. Hearn using Wilder’s name to try and increase interest in Joshua’s fight with Parker and then his likely fight against American Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller for this summer is a clever trick by him. Hearn is doing the same thing that we saw from Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao with the way they slowly built their own fight up over a 6-year period. The two of them were constantly talking about wanting to fight each other for years. In the meantime, boxing fans tuned into watch their other fights against over-matched opposition in hopes that they would soon be seeing them face each other. Unfortunately, it took 6 years for the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight to take place, and when it did finally happen, it was a disappointing affair with neither guy putting out much effort to make it an exciting fight.
Wilder, 32, doesn’t think too much of Joshua’s biggest win of his career over an inactive 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko last April at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wilder says Joshua didn’t win that fight. Wladimir was the one that lost it by failing to go after Joshua when he had him badly hurt.
”Wladimir wasn’t the king, he was already dethroned,” Wilder said. ”And really Joshua didn’t win that fight, Wladimir lost.”
You can make a strong argument that Joshua would have been beaten by Wladimir if he stepped on the gas after he had Joshua down on the canvas and badly fatigued in the 6th round. The results of the Joshua vs. Wladimir fight are perceived differently depending on where one comes from. Many of Joshua’s fans in the UK view his win over Wladimir as a sensational performance by him. Other fans from the U.S didn’t see it as an impressive fight for Joshua. They saw a fighter that was younger, bigger and stronger falling apart due to fatigue and getting hurt by an old and inactive fighter in Wladimir coming off a 2-year layoff and a loss to Tyson Fury. They feel that Joshua only won because Wladimir made the mistake of letting him survive after he had him hurt. It could have easily been a loss for Joshua if Wladimir had put even a half-hearted effort at getting him out of there in rounds 6 through 10.
Wilder had his own scare last Saturday night in his fight with the Cuban Ortiz at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Wilder was hurt in the 7th round by a big left-hand power shot from Ortiz. For the remainder of the round, Wilder took massive punishment from Ortiz and he looked like he was teetering on the brink of being knocked out. Wilder somehow was able to barely make it out of the round without going down or having the fight stopped by referee David Fields. It’s likely that a lot of referees would have stopped the fight given how hurt and defenseless Wilder looked in the round. He was truly fortunate that the referee chose to let him stay in there without stopping the fight.
”He had me in a whirlwind and I had to get out of there,” Wilder said of Ortiz.
Wilder showed a lot of courage in weathering the storm from Ortiz in the 7th. A lot of heavyweights would have crumbled during the round from the heavy bombardment by the 6’3” 241 lb. Ortiz, but Wilder took everything he could dish out and made it through the round without once going down. Ortiz lost his only chance of winning the fight by failing to stop the 6’7” Wilder. In the 8th, Wilder came out of it and was able to use his footwork and jab to keep from getting hit with another one of Ortiz’s big left hands. Wilder’s height and reach helped him greatly in that round, as it was difficult for the shorter Ortiz to get to Wilder’s chin. Ortiz should have targeted Wilder’s midsection more, but he seemed to be dialed in to head-hunting.