By Scott Gilfoid: The highly talented WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) says he expects to have all of the heavyweight titles in his possession by the end of 2016 after beating all of the champions.
For Wilder to realize his dream of holding all the belts in the next 12 months, he’s going to need to face the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko fight in the 2nd half of 2016, and then look to fight whoever winds up with the IBF heavyweight strap before the year ends.
Wilder’s job of unifying all of the heavyweight titles just became more complicated with the news that the International Boxing Federation is pushing for Fury to defend against his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov next, which is something Fury can’t do because of his rematch with Wladimir that that needs to take place next. As such, we’re likely going to see the IBF strip Fury of his IBF strap, and that in turn will lead to Glazkov facing the highest ranked IBF contender willing to face him for the vacant IBF title.
I’d like to think that Glazkov or whoever wins the IBF strap will be willing to face Wilder in a unification match, but I don’t see it happening. Whoever ends up with the IBF title will probably want to milk the IBF title in order to make money off of it rather than taking on Wilder and getting potentially knocked out straightaway by the talent.
“I’m going to say by end of next year. I will do everything in my power to fight whoever has the titles,” Deontay said via RingTV.com about him unifying all of the heavyweight titles. “I’m that guy to bring the heavyweight division back and I want to do it really bad. So whoever I need to beat up, make bleed and put in the hospital I’m ready to do it. 2016 is going to be a great year.”
It honestly doesn’t matter if Wilder doesn’t get a chance to unify all the titles in 2016, because he’s going to become a huge star in the sport even if the winner of the Klitschko-Fury rematch wants nothing to do with him, which will probably be the case. Wilder doesn’t need Fury, Klitschko or Glazkov to fight him in order for him to become a tremendous star in the sport. He’ll become a big star just by fighting the best possible opponents every time he fights.
Wilder, 6’7”, will be back in the ring in January 2016 against possibly Amir Mansour or Shannon Briggs. Those two guys are in play as a tune-up/stay busy fight to get Wilder ready for his mandatory title defense against #1 WBC Alexander Povetkin in 2016. Wilder wanted to take the fight against Povetkin right away, but Povetkin complicated matters when he chose to fight a stay busy fight of his own against the 6’7” Mariusz Wach last November in Russia.
Had Povetkin not taken that fight, then we would likely have the Wilder-Povetkin fight in January rather than Wilder facing the likes of Briggs or Mansour for his next at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Unifying the heavyweight division isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean, look at Wladimir Klitschko; he had 3 of the 4 heavyweight titles in his possession until recently, and he had zero luck in establishing himself as a star in the United States. What I’m saying is that it really doesn’t matter how many of the heavyweight straps a champion has. The boxing fans either want to see that fighter in action or they don’t.
You can have that fighter add as many heavyweight titles to their name as possible, and it still won’t make them anymore popular than they were before if they don’t possess the T-A-L-E-N-T that makes boxing fans want to see them in action. I hate to say it but Wladimir failed to become a star in America for some reason despite him holding heavyweight titles for the last 10 years. So what I’m saying is that Deontay shouldn’t worry about trying to collect all the heavyweight straps, because I don’t see it making any difference. The fans are going to love him in America even if he never gets fights against the likes of Klitschko, Fury or Glazkov.
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