By Abu Mahmood: Deontay Wilder (42-1-1 41 KOs) fought in February of 2020. He lost his WBC title to Tyson Fury (30-0-1 21 KOs). The only reason I mention this is because the comments Deontay Wilder has made have been more recent.
Fighters have reasons, which sometimes turns out to be valid. Sometimes, it’s only the fighter that believes them. When Wilder suspecting Fury messing with his gloves, it was still acceptable as there have been cases where glove tampering has been caught.
The most famous examples being Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito 1 and Billy Collins Jr vs. Luis Resto.
Luis Resto had removed the padding from his gloves, and Antonio Margarito was suspected of using illegal hand wraps.
Deontay, up until this point, had damaged his reputation badly enough. He then accuses Fury of many things, some of which I will not mention as they seem too far-fetched.
So, what can the former WBC champion do to get his career back to where it was?
Deontay had said he had a list of opponents he wanted to fight:
- Dillian Whyte
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Joseph Parker
- Robert Helenius
- Oleksandr Usyk
Out of this list of opponents, most of them have an opponent lined up already.
Dillian Whyte is waiting for Alexander Povetkin to heal up and, in the meantime, wants an opponent that looks like it will be Luis Ortiz.
Joseph Parker is fighting Junior Fa in a domestic grudge match with the winner propelling themselves up the WBO rankings.
Oleksandr Usyk is waiting to fight Anthony Joshua or Joe Joyce, at this time of writing, for the WBO title.
That leaves Robert Helenius and Andy Ruiz Jr.
In his last fight, Helenius beat Adam Kownacki and may end up choosing to have a rematch with him.
Andy Ruiz Jr vs. Deontay Wilder would be a good fight to the US fans, but it’s not something that does much for Deontay.
If Wilder does not get the 3rd fight with Fury, he should fight one of these 3:
- Joe Joyce
- Luis Ortiz (for a 3rd time)
- Michael Hunter
Let us start with Luis Ortiz. Ok, Wilder has beaten Ortiz on 2 separate occasions. Both fights were entertaining, and Luis Ortiz is ranked highly with the WBC. Wilder is not a champion anymore, so his choice to fight Ortiz a 3rd time would likely be more well-received than if he had the WBC championship.
Joe Joyce proved a lot of people wrong with his excellent performance over Daniel Dubois. This would be a great fight as Wilder would beat a credible name in Joyce. Joyce is undefeated as well and is by no means an easy fight for Wilder.
Michael Hunter has been largely unforgotten after his fight with Alexander Povetkin, which ended in a draw. Hunter, who moved up from cruiserweight, showed no fear when taking on the big puncher in Povetkin and would push the pace against Wilder.
And Hunter has only one defeat, which was a decision loss to Oleksandr Usyk. Hunter fought on the 7th of December 2019, and Wilder fought in February of 2020. Both would have been out of the ring for some time.
If Deontay Wilder wants to become world champion again, he needs to start putting together a plan of who he should fight to get a title shot. That is unless he gets his 3rd shot against Fury.