Deontay Wilder: I’m coming for Anthony Joshua

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA champion Anthony Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) on Sunday in telling him that he’s coming for him. Wilder wants to fight Joshua as soon as possible. Deontay was ringside for Joshua’s dismal performance last Saturday against Wladimir Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs) at Wembley stadium in London, England. Joshua was knocked down once in round 6 and hurt several times by the 41-year-old Wladimir.

Thanks to Wladimir making dumb mistake in letting Joshua off the hook in round 6, Joshua was able to eventually recover and knock Wladimir out in the 11th.

”Everything is going as planned. I see you Anthony Joshua ? don’t get too comfortable. I’m coming For You #BombZquad #Unify2017 #Wilder-Joshua,” said Wilder on his Twitter.

The 6’7” Deontay may need to wait until Wladimir gets his rematch with Joshua before he gets a shot against him, because he has a rematch clause in his contract with Joshua. Wladimir says he wants the rematch. He said he’s tied to him.

If Wilder had any doubts that he could beat Joshua, he’s got to be feeling very confident now that Wladimir exposed him as being a very raw and flawed fighter. At this point, Joshua might not even be the fifth best heavyweight in the division. I think you can make a strong argument that there are at least 5 guys in the division that are better than Joshua right now.

Joshua says he’s open to a rematch with Klitschko. He said he wasn’t sure if Wladimir would want one though. It’s unclear why Joshua would not think that Wladimir would want a rematch. It’s not as if he was dominated in the fight. It was a fight that was up for grabs going into the 11th. Wladimir nailed Joshua with a big right hand to the head at the end of the 10th. In round 11, Joshua knocked Wladimir down with 2 hard right hands. However, the stoppage came from punches that really didn’t connect. The referee stepped in and halted the fight without Wladimir getting hit cleanly. It was a premature stoppage by referee David Fields.

“I don’t mind fighting him again, if he wants the rematch,” said Joshua.

Deontay Wilder will probably need to make at least 1 to 2 title defenses of his World Boxing Council belt before Joshua is free to face him in unification fight in 2018. It’ll be a big fight, and it may not even be a unification match by then. If Joshua faces Wladimir in a rematch, then think there’s a good chance that he’ll lose. Deontay would still likely be interested in facing Joshua even with him having lost to Wladimir.

There’s a lot of green available from the British PPV money that I’m sure Wilder wouldn’t mind getting a peace of against Joshua. If Wilder can get a percentage of the British loot, I can see him throwing a bone to Joshua if he ends up losing to Wladimir in a rematch.

Joshua doesn’t have a better option right now for a big payday. Fury isn’t going to be available for a while. He’s in training camp right now in Spain, but he’s not going to be able to take the 115 pounds off in the next 4-5 months in order to fight Joshua. Losing that kind of weight will take at least 8 months. Even 8 months is pushing it. That would be around 15 pounds of weight loss per month. I think Fury will need at least 1 year to burn all that blubber off.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says that Fury will also need some tune-up fights before he can face Joshua. Wladimir should have had a tune-up too. I can’t believe he came back from a 2 year layoff to go straight into a fight with Joshua. I don’t think Joshua would do the same thing if he had been out of the ring for 2 years and had lost his last fight. He sure as heck wouldn’t take a risky fight off the back of a super long layoff from boxing.

Wladimir did it the wrong way. He rushed into the fight, as if he were gambling. When you take crazy risks, you come up short more often than not. Wladimir had everything going against him in terms of him coming back from a 2 year layoff and then fighting in front of a huge crowd of 90,000 boxing fans in Joshua’s home country of the UK. Everything was against Wladimir.

“There was definitely a rematch clause for both sides,” said Wladimir’s promoter Tom Loeffler to skysports.com about him having a rematch clause with Joshua. “Wladimir will make the decision on what he wants to do.”

So there it is. Loeffler is saying that Wladimir does have a rematch clause and he will make the decision. Wladimir has already confirmed that he wants the rematch. So unless he changes his mind or has his mind changed for him by Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, we’re going to see a rematch between Joshua and Klitschko before we can start thinking seriously about a Joshua-Wilder fight. I don’t think that Hearn will let Joshua fight Wilder until he faces Tyson Fury first.

There’s too much risk for Joshua in a fight with Deontay. Think about it. If Joshua fights Deontay, he could get poleaxed and that would ruin any chance of Joshua-Fury fight. I guess the Joshua vs. Fury fight could still happen, but it might need to be moved to a smaller venue rather than the 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium. It would be a tremendous blow to Hearn if he stuck the fight at Wembley Stadium and they only had half capacity of around 45,000 boxing fans turning out to see the fight.

”Of course, we have it in the contract, I’m right now interested,” said Klitschko via skysports.com.

Here are Boxing News 24’s top heavyweights:

1. Deontay Wilder

2. Joe Joyce

3. Luis Ortiz

4. Wladimir Klitschko

5. Joseph Parker

6. Anthony Joshua

7. Jarrell Miller

8. Alexander Povetkin

9. Andy Ruiz Jr.

10. Carlos Takam

Joshua needs to make some major improvements in his game for him to get to the No.1 spot. I think if he works on his stamina, learns how to block shots, and loses some muscle weight, he could creep up to the No.5 spot. But he would still need a ton of work to get to the top spot. Right now, I just see Joshua as an overly hyped heavyweight paper champion.

“I do [think that is the fight the British public wants to see] and that’s why I mentioned it because it’s not as if I’m calling out someone random or drawing attention to someone random,” said Joshua to Sky Sports News HQ about a fight with Tyson Fury. “I have heard and seen people talking and it seems like it is heading in that direction.”

Unless Joshua can out of fighting Wladimir again somehow, I think he’s stuck doing the rematch. I Joshua is just going to wait for a fight with Fury, he’s probably going to have to wait a long time. I don’t think Joshua realizes how much time is involved in losing 115 pounds. That’s not going to be done in 6 months unless Fury is put on a bread and water diet. Joshua isn’t going to stay inactive while he waits for Fury to trim off the weight. Fury still needs to get his boxing license back from the BBBofC. Maybe they’ll give Fury his license back this year, but then again, maybe they won’t. It’s up to them.