By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder says he’s going to knockout Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz on March 3, and then travel to Cardiff for Anthony Joshua’s fight on March 31st, and then face off with him if he defeats WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker on the night.
Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) likes the idea of confronting Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) after the Parker fight is over. That’s the ideal sitiation. Whether everything goes down like that is another question. Wilder needs to win his fight against the dangerous southpaw Cuban Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs), and then Joshua needs to defeat the unbeaten, younger 26-year-old Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) on March 31.
It’s possible Joshua could lose that fight if Parker gets him tired like Wladimir Klitschko, Carlos Takam and Dillian Whyte all did. Joshua’s gas tank is horrible. On top of all that, Wilder will need to be permitted to climb into the ring with Joshua after the Parker fight. It’s quite possible that the security at the Joshua-Parker fight could step in and stop Wilder from getting inside the ring unless he gets it checked out ahead of time with Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
“I will get in the ring and go face to face with him,” Wilder said to skysports.com. That will be amazing and I hope he is anticipating seeing me and people are anticipating two tough guys getting in the ring. We will call this the preview. This will let people see what our fight will be like.”
It would be a pity if Wilder climbed into the ring to confront Joshua on March 31 and he was promptly arrested by the police at the event. Now that Wilder has given Hearn a heads up about wanting to get inside the ring after the Joshua-Parker fight, it’ll be easy enough for him to have the security and police on high alert to intercept him and take him away if he tries to get at Joshua. I don’t think Hearn wants any part of Wilder facing his golden goose Joshua anytime soon. There’s too much easy money for Joshua to make fighting Miller, Alexander Povetkin and a number of other fighters like an out of shape Tyson Fury.
It would be nice if Wilder were allowed to climb inside the ring to face off with Joshua if/when he beats Parker on March 31, but it might be a pointless endeavor. Since Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller is being mentioned as Joshua’s next fight after Parker, there’s no reason for Wilder to get in the face of Joshua inside the ring on March 31. The only reason for Wilder to get in Joshua’s face is if the two of them were to be fighting next in the summer, but that’s not going to happen. Hearn isn’t talking about wanting the Wilder fight in the summer. If anything, the Joshua vs. Wilder fight will take place in late 2018. Even then, it might not happen this year if Hearn opts not to let Wilder get the 50-50 deal that he’s looking for. Hearn doesn’t see Wilder as being worth 50 percent of the revenue for the Joshua fight, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to accept anything less than that.
”People want to know what’s going to happen next. I am an unpredictable person, I do what people don’t expect me to do but I do things when it’s the right time for me to do them. You’ll see,” Wilder said about him wanting to climb inside the ring to do a face-off with Joshua.
Yeah, boxing fans do want to know what’s going to happen next with Joshua’s career after the Parker fight. Wilder is right about that. But since it’s painfully obvious that he’s NOT going to be next for Joshua in the summer, he’s probably not going to be allowed to get inside the ring with him after the Parker fight on March 31. I can see it all going down like this. The ring is surrounded by blue-coated police and/or security after the Joshua-Parker fight. The moment Wilder starts heading for the ring to climb in to confront Joshua, he’s immediately intercepted and dragged away kicking and screaming. It’ll be ugly, but at least the British boxing public won’t get the impression that Joshua will be fighting Wilder next, because that’s clearly a fight that’s NOT going to be happening. ‘Big Baby’ Jarrell Miller is likely the next opponent for Joshua. Miller has some kind of an agreement with Hearn that if he wins his next fight, he’ll be the one that Joshua faces next. The undefeated Miller (20-0-1, 18 KOs) will be fighting next on April 28 on Hearn’s show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Hearn fighter middleweight Daniel Jacobs will be fighting on that card against Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan. Miller’s opponent hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s unlikely that he’ll face anyone that is a real threat to beating him. With Miller fighting in April and Joshua in action in late March, it’s perfect for the two of them to face each other in the summer in a Matchroom Sport show in New York. That’s what’s being said. Joshua will come to New York to fight Miller in that city.
If Joshua loses to Parker or even if their fight is competitive, we’ll probably see a rematch between them in the summer rather than Wilder having a chance to get at AJ. Come on, there’s a VERY real possibility that the stamina-plagued Joshua could lose to Parker. Joshua is starting to show some serious stamina problems. That could be from all that muscle Joshua is carrying around on his bodybuilding frame or it might be age starting to rear its ugly head. A fighter that is 28 is not the same fighter stamina-wise that they were in their early 20s. Some fighters start slowing down when they near their 30s. A sprinter is generally done by that age. I think it’s the same thing with boxing. The stamina starts going downhill for a lot of fighters as they head into their 30s.
Even if Wilder agrees to 30 percent of the revenue for a fight with Joshua, I still have doubts about that fight taking place in the summer or in 2018 at all. There’s too much easy cash for Joshua to make fighting different guys. Wilder is a big risk for the gravy train. Let’s be real. If Joshua gets knocked cold by Wilder in the summer, it could take a big bite out of AJ’s future earnings from the Sky Box Office PPV money that’s been rolling in.
It would be funny if Hearn fighter Dillian Whyte tries to get inside the ring after Wilder’s March 3 fight against Luis Ortiz. I think that wouldn’t go over very well. Wilder has zero interest in fighting Whyte in order to earn a fight with Joshua. I’m not sure that’s even the real reason why Hearn wants Wilder to fight Whyte so badly. I get the impression that Hearn is hoping like mad that Wilder loses to Whyte so that he can get him out of Joshua’s hair as a threat to the gravy train. Think of it this way. If Whyte gets lucky and beats Wilder, then Hearn can laugh at the ‘Bronze Bomber’ and put him on ignore permanently in terms of him being able to fight Joshua. Hearn would have the perfect excuse to tell the boxing public each time Wilder calls out Joshua. Hearn would just remind the fans that Wilder was beaten by Whyte in the past. Heck, even if Wilder beats Whyte, but doesn’t look good in doing so, Hearn can use that as an excuse as well not to make the Joshua-Wilder fight. Hearn was using Parker’s less than stellar performance against Hughie Fury as a reason why he didn’t want to make the Joshua-Parker fight. It didn’t matter that Parker had an opponent that was running from him for 12 rounds in Hughie Fury. Hearn was still complaining about how he didn’t look good in winning. Wilder would be in an almost no win situation if he faces Whyte. Deontay would either have to knock Whyte out straightaway or else he’d look bad because he allowed him to go rounds with him. Joshua stopped the injured Whyte in the 7th round in December 2015. If Deontay doesn’t knockout Whyte before that point, Hearn could say, ‘See, I told you. Wilder isn’t as good as people thought he was. Now I won’t bother making the Joshua-Wilder fight. I can’t sell it to the public.’