Deontay Wilder tells 78SportsTV he still wants the Anthony Joshua fight!
Boy o boy, the heavyweight division has gotten very interesting in an awful hurry! After years of relative dormancy the division has enjoyed an explosion of new interest. Truthfully speaking, this is largely due to the emergence of the WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder.
For as long as can be remembered, the leading appeal of the boxing big men is the promise of swift, brutal knockouts. And if Wilder has provided anything, it’s a long string of memorable and destructive knockouts.
In fact, barring Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury, Wilder has literally flattened every single one of his professional foes. Although he beat the count, of his own volition, even Fury has admitted that Wilder briefly knocked him out in the twelfth round of their December 2018 dust-up. Coupling this vicious power, with the Alabaman’s infectious personality, Wilder has become must see TV.
For years, the main fight that the world ached to witness was Wilder versus former unified world heavyweight champion Anthony “AJ” Joshua. Not only was this stylistically a fantastic bout, the winner would emerge as the fully unified and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Despite the yearning of the boxing public, and obvious implications of victory, the fight was never contracted.
“Just like we had private conversations, but you went and ran and showed your master! You know I don’t respect you no more bruh, I don’t have no respect! When we had those private conversations and you went back and showed Eddie what we was talking about, you lost my respect wholeheartedly!
“People don’t even fuck with you like that! The black community don’t fuck you, even in your own country bruh. I been there almost three weeks now, the people talk, I done spoke to all of them. It’s crazy, but I’ll keep that to myself.”
At this point, most believe that the dust-up never came to fruition due to the needless chicanery of Team Joshua. Joshua is even on the record threatening to freeze Wilder out if he did not concede to all the stipulations that his side was demanding.
Yet, as history has written it, AJ would go on to lose to his undefeated record and all his titles to Andy “Destroyer” Ruiz in an unexpected upset loss in June of 2019. Joshua is scheduled to rematch Ruiz this December in Saudi Arabia.
Recently, AJ has uttered to various media members that he is concerned that Wilder may freeze his out of a fight if he successfully regains his titles back from Ruiz. However, in a recent interview with 78SportsTV, the Bronze Bomber has emphatically denied this claim. Not only does Wilder have no intents on freezing him out, he would race to the opportunity to fight AJ.
“I don’t recall having no meeting talking about freezing him out or whatever. Like that’s some lame shit man. I’m a real king man, I’m real a man. Why would I freeze you out when I want to slaughter you? When I want to hurt you? When I want to knock you out, put you on a highlight reel, why would I freeze you out?
“I still want to fight you AJ! I aint freezing you out, that’s just your terms.
“I don’t know where you get this freezing out stuff from. A man, handle your business baby. Our fight is still in line, don’t worry about that. I ain’t going nowhere no time soon.
“I’m going to knock you out just like I said would. Just stay focused, handle your business, do what you got to do. I want you to focus on Ruiz and may the best man win in that and after that, shit, let’s get this thing popping!
“[…] My thing is, IF you win in the rematch, I don’t want to hear no bullshit, let’s make that fight happen!”
It’s no secret that Wilder has been on a campaign to unify the division since he became a professional fighter. He is extremely well known for saying: “there will be one champion, one face, one name and that is Deontay Wilder.”
For this reason if no other, the Bronze Bomber would happily face the winner of Ruiz v Joshua 2 regardless of who owns the straps.
By: Bakari Simpson
