After his laboured victory recently over the unheralded Eric Molina, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder faced more intense scrutiny of his championship credentials than ever before, with significant numbers of fans and writers convinced the Alabama man is merely a pretender to the heavyweight throne and certainly not the America’s next great hope.
In his latest chat via fighthubtv, the “Bronze Bomber” promised he will be returning on September 26th in what will be another voluntary defence of his title, and his words did nothing to quell the fears of those who want to see a credible, ranked fighter in the opposite corner;
“When we’re dealing with a heavyweight title fight, I tell people, ‘you have to throw away his (opponent’s) record, you have to throw away the opponents he’s fought. At the end of the day, that don’t mean nothing.”
Wilder seems to believe that because a part-timer is getting a shot at the heavyweight title, that opportunity alone will give them the desire to perform above expectation – especially as they know they have a chance at changing their lives forever – particularly financially.
It’s almost as if he expects pure blind faith to be able to win fights alone and that skill-set is unimportant. A worryingly delusional way of thinking that inspires no hope in him fighting anyone credible until forced.
“It’s like fighting out of poverty” he said. “When you get that opportunity, you gonna take advantage to the fullest and that’s how fighters are supposed to look at it.”
“We looking at going again in September. I told people that once I become champion, I wanna be an active champion. So we gonna look at another guy in the top 10.”
Whether that actually happens or not, (top 10 fighter) remains to be seen, yet Deontay will not be able to run from his mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin, for too long. And he knows it.
“I’m looking forward to fighting him, fighting my first mandatory. We looking to go into negotiations October sometime, and I’ll have another fight before then and fight him at the end of the year.”
It’s more than possible the fight ends up in Russia. If Povetkin made Klitschko travel there due to the deep pockets of his backers, one would surely think Wilder is going the same way?
It’ll certainly be interesting to see what happens.
Twitter @Undilutedpoisonipl