WBC WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT champion Deontay Wilder [38-0, 37KOs] has claimed Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua [20-0, 20KOs] are delaying a highly-anticipated heavyweight title showdown due to a fear of defeat should ‘The Bronze Bomber’ and ‘AJ’ finally trade leather.
The heavyweight division’s two hardest hitters, both Olympic medalists (Wilder bronze in 2008; Joshua gold in 2012), have been on a collision course since Joshua turned professional in 2013.
Promoter Eddie Hearn stated after Joshua’s victory over Carlos Takam last weekend that the Watford man would fight all three of former undisputed champion Tyson Fury, WBO champion Joseph Parker and WBC king Deontay Wilder in 2018.
Wilder, however, who will face the man he dethroned, Bermane Stiverne, in a rematch this Saturday due to original opponent Luis Ortiz failing a drugs test (as Wilder himself had predicted he would), isn’t buying Hearn’s bold prediction.
The 32-year-old voiced his frustration to On The Ropes Radio, where he told presenter Jenna J that perceived trivialities such as social media influence were being used as excuses to keep WBA and IBF champion Joshua from his reach.
He also expressed his belief that should the pair be kept apart for much longer, even British boxing fans would begin to ask questions of Joshua and the freight train-like nature of his recent success.
“That’s going to be up to those guys,” Wilder said. “We are ready to go. We are ready to go any given time. I’m ready to go after this fight once my mandatory is up and over with.
“Why not bring us together? But they’re running a business over there in England, they’re running an operation that they don’t want to let go of just yet. They got me on the other hand, and I mess up all the plans.
I’m so dangerous – that’s why they’ve been stalling, that’s why they’re not trying to make the fight. That’s why they have been trying to add popularity and money into the situation to try to block it. Nobody cares about who has more followers on social media, who gives a fuck? This is boxing! When did it get to the point where we care about that?
“It’s all excuses upon excuses, but at the end of the day, there’s going to come a time where there ain’t gonna be more excuses, they won’t have many places to run, because even the UK fans are going to stop believing their own bullshit.”
Wilder’s upcoming opponent Stiverne, who reigned as WBC champion for just one fight before losing to Wilder on points – in doing so becoming the first and only man to take Wilder the distance – was compared to a ‘picnic fly’ in the same OTR interview, with Wilder claiming he was hellbent on silencing the Haitian-Canadian in Brooklyn this weekend.
“I’m very happy and pleased about the situation and getting to fight him again,” he said. “I proved myself the first time, I beat him to an inch of his life like I told him I would do. Now I’m coming to finish the job.
Not only do I want to finish the job, he’s my mandatory and he’s been like a fly to my ear. He’s like one of those picnic flies that want your food or your fruit that you have out, but we don’t want to give them none. I’m just ready to get him out of my way, so I can clear my path for other great fights in the future.
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