By Tim Royner: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder says he wants IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua to make sure he calls out his name tonight if/when he beats WBO champion Joseph Parker in their unification fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
It’s not likely that Joshua will bother mentioning Wilder’s name, as he already said that he doesn’t believe in hyping up fights until they’re signed. Wilder says he was told that if he had come to Cardiff this weekend, he wasn’t going to be allowed to enter the ring to call out Joshua. He says he heard there was talk of a restraining order on him by Joshua to keep him away from him. Whether that’s true or not is unknown, but it was enough of a negative for Wilder not to bother traveling to Cardiff to work for Sky Sports at ringside.
It’s widely believed that Joshua’s next opponent will be American Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller in a fight could take place in August in New York. Miller is from New York, and he has a working relationship with Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchoom Boxing.
“All roads lead to the Bronze Bomber,” Wilder said to IFL TV. “If you beat Parker, don’t hold back. Call my name out. Tell the people what you want. Won’t wait, mate, make the date,” Wilder said.
Joshua isn’t the type to call out fighter’s name. Wilder would be better off ignoring that fight like he said he was going to do in recent interviews, and instead focus on breaking the 50-0 record. Wilder says he wants to build his record up to 51-0, and “clean out” the heavyweight division.
Wilder says by the time he’s completely cleaned out the division, there will be no one left standing but him and Joshua. He believes that Joshua will have to fight him at that point. Wilder has 11 more fights to win before he breaks Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record. Mayweather was able to accomplish that record by adding a number of weak opponents late in his career in boxing novice Conor McGregor (0-1), Robert Guerrero and Andre Berto. Mayweather took things really easy in the later stages of his career to pad his record and risk losing by steering around the likes of Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Kell Brook and Shawn Porter. Those guys might have beaten Mayweather. Wilder needs to prove that he’s not the type of fighter that is only interested in breaking records by facing soft opposition the way Mayweather did. He stepped up in his last fight and almost lost to Luis Ortiz on March 3.
”Nothing has come to my attention yet,” Wilder said when asked if he’s been given an increased offer from Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn for him to fight Dillian Whyte.
Hearn might have been just talking without being serious about him wanting to increase his $3 million offer for Wilder to face Matchroom Boxing fighter Dillian Whyte in June in a fight that he wants to take place in the UK. Hearn spoke of increasing the offer to get Wilder to face Whyte, as he wants to have the winner of that fight take on Joshua in a unification mach. Hearn believes that Joshua will have 3 of the 4 heavyweight titles by the time he turns his attention to whoever holds the World Boxing Council title. Wilder still has the belt right now, but he might not have it too much longer if he keeps having wars against the likes of Luis Ortiz.
Wilder stirred up a lot of anger this week with his comments about wanting to add a body to resume of wins before he hands up his gloves. He says that when he’s inside the ring, he becomes the Bronze Bomber and he no longer is thinking about holding back from going after his opponents. He says afterwards, he’s back to his normal self and he’s checking on his hurt opponents to see if they’re alright.
“Some people say I do all the wrong things in boxing, I can agree. I do all the wrong things in boxing, but I win. You’ve got some fighters who do all the right things and still lose,” Wilder
said to the BreakfastClubAM.
“I want a body on my record, I really do… I thought I had one with Szpilka because he wasn’t breathing when he hit the canvas. Somebody going to go,” Wilder said.
Wilder is just talking. He’s giving these interviews and he just rambles. It doesn’t fit with his character for him to be going out and trying to seriously hurt his opposition in the way he talks about. Never the less, Wilder has knocked guys out badly during his career with his huge right hand shots. His knockouts of Artur Szpilka and Sergey Liakhovich were devastating. They left both fighters looking concussed on the canvas. If Wilder lands one of those big right hands on Joshua’s chin, he could do the same thing to him. It wouldn’t matter how much of a weight advantage Joshua would have. Wilder’s power comes from his frame, and not from having a massive amount of muscles. Joshua weighed in at 242 lbs. last Friday for his fight with Parker.
Wilder weighed just 214 lbs. for his last contest against Luis Ortiz. Despite being outweighed by 27 pounds, Wilder badly hurt Ortiz every time he hit him hard with right hands. Wilder knocked Ortiz down in rounds 5 and twice in the 10th. Wilder also had Ortiz hurt at the end of the 9th. Joshua would have a 28 lb. weight advantage over Wilder if they were to face each other with the current weights. Joshua’s punch resistance might not even be as good as Ortiz’s. In that case, Joshua will be at risk at all times by Wilder. All it takes is one big shot from Wilder, and it could be over for Joshua. It would be one of those things that happen sometimes. It doesn’t matter how much talent a fighter has. If they can’t take a head shot from a big puncher, they get knocked out. That might be the reason why Hearn doesn’t want to let Joshua fight Wilder.