Wilder Still Claiming He Wants Joshua

Boxingnews24.com

By Adam Beechers: Unbeaten WBC champion Deontay Wilder claims he wants to unify the division and wants Joshua next. Wilder, 31, takes on aging, unbeaten Cuban Luis Ortiz on November 4th at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York and is already looking past his opponent.

“When I beat him (Ortiz) I Want Joshua, everybody knows what the deal is.” Said Wilder to IFLTV. “I want to unify the division and whoever I have to beat to get that fight made then let’s do it. If Ortiz is the gatekeeper then let’s do it. I’m waiting on them. I’ve recently been calling out all these champions Povetkin, Glazkov, Charles Martin, The Furys and Klitschko (none of whom are currently champions) and none of them want to take me on when I’m the one with the WBC belt.”

The Bronze Bomber went on to question why people see him as the weaker champion. “If I’m so easy when why do people want to dodge me. That’s what people should comprehend in their mind – If I’m so easy then why aren’t they fighting me, I want to unify and I will take on Joshua once I’ve done what I’ve got to do against Ortiz and I won’t have to talk no more.”

Big question marks remain about the quality of Wilder who has not stepped up his level like other fighters tend to do when they are world champions. Wilder has been matched incredibly well against soft opponents such as Gerald Washington, Chris Arreola and Artur Szpilka. He should be accepting the fights against guys like Dillian Whyte, Andy Ruiz JR and Dominic Breazeale who could give him a stern examination like what Bermane Stiverne gave him 33 months ago.

There is no doubt the man from Tuscaloosa is hugely talented and a great character to throw into the heavyweight division and there is no doubt that Luis Ortiz gives him his toughest test on paper. But He should be fighting tougher guys like this 10-15 fights ago like what all other domestic level heavyweights do. This fight could work two ways for Deontay; He either smashes the 38 year old early and people won’t give him credit or he struggles to defeat a tough fighter and people say Deontay isn’t good enough. It seems the only way people may give Wilder credit for this fight is if he overcomes a knockdown and knocks out the Cuban similar to how Joshua dealt with Klitschko at Wembley Stadium.