(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) By Scott Gilfoid: The hard hitting WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) says he’s ready to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) for all of his titles just as soon as Wilder gets through with his voluntary defense against a still to be determined opponent on January 16th at the beautiful Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Wilder, 30, is ready to skip past his mandatory defense against #1 WBC Alexander Povetkin in order to face the 6’9” Fury in a unification fight after his January fight. The question now is whether Fury is willing to face Wilder.
The talented 6’7” Deontay says he’s willing to five Fury the hometown advantage by coming over to the UK to fight him where he wants. A huge money unification fight like Wilder vs. Fury would obviously be absolutely perfect for the 80,000 Wembley Stadium in London, UK.
Fury’s fans would be purchasing tickets at an alarming rate to see if he could wind the final piece of the heavyweight puzzle by trying to take the WBC title from Wilder.
If Fury could win that fight, he’d have all of the heavyweight titles in his possession, and he’d have the bragging rights to claim that he’s the best heavyweight in the division. Fury could then give up the belts and retire undefeated, which is something I could see him doing rather than fighting to the bitter end like most fighters do.
“I want that fight to happen as soon as possible,” Wilder said via the BBC.com. “I’ve got to fight someone in January and after that fight I would love to have a unification bout – and guess what, I wouldn’t mind coming to the UK for that one.”
For Wilder to be able to fight Fury after his next fight in January, he’s going to need the World Boxing Council to come on board with this move, because Wilder is technically supposed to be facing his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin after his next fight. But you know how it is with the sanctioning bodies.
The WBC might agree to let the Wilder-Fury fight go ahead first because it’s a unification fight, and those type of fights tend to come first ahead of mandatory defenses. I believe that the WBC will allow the Wilder vs. Fury fight to take place ahead of Wilder’s defense against Povetkin.
It’s a no-brainer for the WBC because the money generated from a Wilder-Fury fight would be absolutely huge compared to a much smaller fight between Wilder and Povetkin. Its apples and oranges.
“No matter where it might be, I want to be the undisputed champion of the world,” Wilder said. “Next year is going to be a great year for me, regardless. Everything is falling in our plan, our time and our planning for what we want to do.”
Wilder might have to wait until Fury faces the recently beaten Wladimir Klitschko in a rematch in early 2016 before he can get a crack at him. Klitschko had a rematch clause in the contract with Fury for their fight last Saturday night at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The only thing that’s unclear about the Fury-Klitschko rematch is whether Fury can get a fight in between the second fight. If so, then a fight between Wilder and Fury can take place if Fury is up for it. If not, then we’ll see Fury fight Wladimir next in a rematch.
I see you @Tyson_Fury…. #ImComingForYou
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) November 28, 2015
Judging by Fury’s recent negative comments about a unification fight against Wilder at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night, I would have to guess that Fury has no intentions of getting in the ring iwht the talented Wilder in order to let him try and take his straps from him. Fury seemed to lose his head a little when Wilder’s name was brought up at the press conference. Instead of lightly brushing aside the mention of Wilder like a good politician would do, Fury blew his stack, spitting out this comment:
“Why do we need to mention Deontay Wilder? Let’s laugh at his name, shall we? Wladimir Klitschko was the number one in the division. Probably the pound-for-pound king, whatever that means. So why would I be bothered about a novice like Wilder? He’s a basketball player who took up boxing a couple of years ago. I’m a true natural fighter.”
The way that Fury kind of lost it when talking about Wilder gave me the feeling that there’s a lot of fear there and perhaps some jealousy on Fury’s part about the talented American fighter. I mean, why would Fury blow his top at the mere mention of Wilder’s name? I don’t know, but it seems to me that Fury should been happy to hear Wilder’s name mentioned at the post-fight press conference instead of him frothing at the mouth after Wilder’s name was brought up.
As far as Fury saying Wladimir was No.1 in the heavyweight division goes, I think he’s kidding himself. Yeah, Wladimir was technically No.1 in the division up until last Saturday, but he was clearly on the slide in terms of his skills and ability. All you have to do is look at Wladimir’s previous fight against American Bryant Jennings last April to see that Wladimir was starting to look like a shot fighter. Wladimir couldn’t pull the trigger on his punches in that fight. He threw very few right hands in the fight, even though Jennings was wide open defensively for right hands all night long.
Further, Wladimir didn’t throw his left hook either. The only thing Wladimir was able to do in the fight was use his jab sparingly, hold and move around the ring. Wladimir’s offensive skills looked like they were absolutely gone. The only thing left was his ability to move around the ring and hold. It was pretty sad for me to see because I thought Wladimir was a shell of his former self when watching him against Jennings.
The way I see it, Wladimir was down to 10% of what he used to be. All his offense was gone, and the only thing left was his jab, which he didn’t even use that more than a handful of times in the fight. At 39, Wladimir wasn’t the same fighter he’d been from 1996 to 2010. I think Wladimir has been on the slide since 2011, but he really has slipped since earlier this year in his fight against Jennings.
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