Its going to be exactly a year since former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder was manhandled by Tyson Fury. Suffering his first career defeat, that too at the hands of his arch-nemesis in their rematch, it was hard for Wilder to accept the loss.
Since walking out of the MGM Grand Garden Arena after losing his green and gold belt on 22nd February last year, Deontay Wilder has not only been vocal about a trilogy fight but also accused Fury of cheating, to which, the Gypsy King retaliated saying Wilder had ‘lost his senses’ and he would never activate the rematch clause, i,e spar against Wilder.
Now the boxing fandom may be split on deciding if Wilder has regained his senses or not, but the most recent words that came out of the ‘Bronze Bomber’s mouth, indicate that the pugilist is not really interested in Fury anymore and wants to face new fighters.
Deontay Wilder ready to take on “any fighter that’s at the top”, but not his previous opponents
Deontay Wilder recently went live on Instagram, where he revealed that he would rather face fighters that are new to him, ruling out the possibility of a Fury trilogy or even a Luis Ortiz trilogy, whom the American defeated twice among his ten title defenses.
“I’d love to fight guys I haven’t fought, you know, the ones at the top which I haven’t fought,” Wilder asserted on Instagram Live, “That’s what I want. I know that’s lame, a little bit, to not name a name. But anyone I haven’t faced at the top, that’s you.”
Looking at the top of the heavyweight hierarchy, this leaves Wilder with two options- either the former unified champion Andy Ruiz Jr or the current WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titleholder Anthony Joshua.
“Yeah, Any fighter that’s at the top that people haven’t seen me fight,” the 35-year-old affirmed, “People strongly want to see me fight, that’s who I want to fight.”
While Ruiz has been inactive since his rematch with AJ in December 2019, Joshua himself has gotten into some steam with none other than Fury and the two could be facing each other sooner than ever for a blockbuster undisputed championship.
Nonetheless, naming fighters isn’t really Wilder’s cup of tea.
“I can sit here and name names all day. That’s the easy part. I’m just going to go to the top. Once you go to the top and it’s someone I haven’t fought, that’s who I want to fight. I want to clean the division out, period,” Wilder concluded. (H/T WorldBoxingNews)
