By Jeff Aranow: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder says he’s not looking past his next challenger Gerald Washington on February 25, but he’s already got his sights set on facing the winner of the Joseph Parker vs. Hughie Fury fight, which is expected to take place in April. Wilder is predicting a win for Parker over Hughie.
Wilder says he’s willing to travel to New Zealand to fight Parker in his home country, because he’s not worried about the judges. Wilder believes that he’s going to be able to knockout Parker to make the judges meaningless in that fight.
(Photo credit: Premier Boxing Champions)
Wilder wants to take Parker’s World Boxing Organization title, and then take the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko to win the IBF and WBA titles. If all goes right for Wilder in 2017, he’ll finish out the year as the undisputed heavyweight champion with the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO titles all in his possession.
It would be a huge surprise to a lot of boxing experts if Wilder can beat Joshua and Parker to grab all the titles. Right now there are a lot of people in the sport who believe that Joshua would beat Wilder. But there are so many unknowns about Joshua that anything is possible if Wilder bounces one of his big right hands off his chin.
Wilder’s right hand power is undeniable, and he’s probably the bigger puncher with the faster hand speed than Joshua. Wilder is also taller with a longer reach than the 6’6” Joshua. The only difference is Wilder isn’t a gold medal winner in the 2012 Olympics like Joshua, and he’s not a PPV star like him.
“This is how I want things to go and this is what my team has in mind as well — 2017 is all about unifications,” Wilder said to ringtv.com. “I’m not looking past Gerald Washington. But I look through it. I’m window shopping. After Gerald Washington, we’re going after the winner of Hughie Fury and Joseph Parker, which I’m predicting Joseph Parker to win. So, I’m going after Joseph Parker for the WBO title.”
Wilder will probably get the Parker fight if he gets past Hughie Fury. If Hughie wins that fight, then it’s not likely that he’ll agree to fight Wilder. Hughie can make more money fighting Joshua, and I don’t think his management will want to risk that fight by facing Wilder and potentially getting knocked out by him. It’s going to be a big enough upset on it’s own if Hughie can beat Parker.
If Hughie is able to beat Wilder as well, it would be quite a year in 2017. I think Hughie’s management will play it safe if he beats Parker and instead go after the Joshua fight directly in order to make some life-changing money.
“Two belts-two belts, unify the division,” Wilder said. “And that’s it. I want belts. Parker is next. His trainer hit me up. They want the fight.”
Deontay needs to concentrate on his next fight against Gerald Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs), because he could lose that fight if he’s not concentrating. Washington is unbeaten, and he knows how to use his 6’7” height to his advantage. Wilder isn’t a good enough fighter for him to be counting on beating undefeated fighters like Washington. Wilder was a safe pick in his recent fights against Chris Arreola and Artur Szpilka, because those were both vulnerable fighters. But Washington is a tougher opponent because he’s got the size to land his power shots against Wilder.
This isn’t going to be a fight in which Wilder is bombing a shorter opponent from the outside. This could wind up being a very competitive match that Wilder could lose if he gets hit with one of Washington’s best shots.