By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) isn’t too worried about getting past his aging mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) in May of this year.
This is a mere formality for the tall power-punching 6’7” Bronze Bomber Wilder. He’s more focused on getting the top British heavyweights to take their scalps. Deontay specifically wants Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and David Haye.
Why Deontay wants Haye is anyone’s guess. Haye is just an ex-champion that is in the infancy of a comeback, which probably won’t pan out for him once he gets past the level of scrub fighters. Haye is going to do well as long as he’s carefully hand-picking his opponents, but when he looks for a decent fighter, I expect him to be found out again. Haye is just too small for the heavyweight division in my view.
“At the end of the day I am going for all the belts so I am going to have to go through all of them. And I would live to fight the UK guys – even in the UK,” said Deontay to skysports.com. “If I have to go through Fury after my Povetkin fight – and I never look past my next fight, I am not that foolish – to get those belts, I would love to fight him next.”
Well, I suspect that Deontay won’t have to worry about Fury, because I see him losing his remaining titles after he faces Wladimir Klitschko in a rematch in the summer if it even happens then. I think Fury is going to get thrashed by Wladimir the second time around.
At that point, it anyone’s guess what Wladimir will do. I wish I could say he’ll do the right thing by facing Deontay in a unification fight, but if you look at what Wladimir has been matched recent years, it suggests he might choose to pad his record with bottom feeders in voluntary defenses.
At this point in Wladimir’s career, I think he’s looking to hold on for as long as possible. He makes a heck of a lot of money each time he fights, so it almost doesn’t matter if he makes voluntary defenses. He’s going to be making a ton of sweet cash each time he fights, as he fills up giant German stadiums with fans.
“If he [Fury] wins the [Wladimir Klitschko] rematch, I will get his remaining belts then after that whoever wins out of Charles or Joshua, I’d love to go and fight the winner of that to get that belt too,” said Deontay. “And maybe at the end of that, my first titles defence, maybe it’ll be against David to see if he can still do what he used to do. I’ll put them up for him.”
I don’t know how this is going to play out, but I don’t see Wilder’s scenario working at all. I don’t think Haye is going to want any part of fighting Deontay. If you listen to the stuff that Haye has been blabbering to the press, he’s totally focused on getting the Joshua cash out fight. That’s a fight that I see the 6’6” Joshua easily winning. I mean, if Deontay is fine with fighting Haye after he gets beaten by Joshua, then so be it.
I think it would be a wrong-headed move on Deontay’s part, but he can certainly get sloppy seconds if he wants by fighting Haye at that point. But as far as Deontay getting a Haye fight before he’s fought Joshua, I think he’s kidding himself. Haye will clearly not take on a dangerous puncher like Deontay before he gets his cash out fight against Joshua. It would be a risky thing for Haye if he were to take on Deontay, which is why I don’t see it happening.
If Haye were really brave, it would be a great move on his part to fight Wilder, because if he beats him, he would have the WBC heavyweight title in his possession. Haye’s fight with Joshua would be much bigger if he’s a world champion rather than just a contender. Beating Wilder would be a big feather in Haye’s cap if he could pull it off.
The WBC belt, which some boxing fans feel is the most prestigious of the four major heavyweight titles, would help validate Haye to show the fans that he’s for real and not just someone coming back for a cash out fight before disappearing for another three years.
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