He might be retired, and (his two fights with David Haye aside) a retired career cruiserweight at that, but Deontay Wilder still wants to fight Tony Bellew. In fact, more accurately, the reigning WBC heavyweight king wants to give Bellew “an ass whupping,” and he says it has to be done “on principal.” Bellew recently came out with the statement that Wilder, 40-0-1(39) is “the worst, least technically gifted heavyweight champion ever,” and Wilder clearly heard about it.
Speaking with ThaBoxingVoice, Wilder says he would meet Bellew at a catch-weight “if he ever wants this work.”
“You know, Tony Bellew a bitch,” Wilder said. “He was scared during that time and he’s scared now. I’ll still go down in weight. I can still lose weight. Sometimes it’s about principal. This is a principal ass whupping right here. This is just because. If Bellew ever wants this, if he ever wants this work, let me know. I’ll get down or you can come up, whatever you comfortable with.”
Bellew insisted after his KO loss to Oleksandr Usyk that he was done, that he would not change his mind. Still, stranger fights have happened than this one. And Wilder, who weighed just 212 pounds for his fight with Tyson Fury (and reportedly entered the ring even lower, at around 209) could possibly fight Bellew at an agreed weight of around 210. No, it’s not one of the big, big fights we want, but while we wait for Wilder/Fury II and/or Wilder/Anthony Joshua, maybe this fight would prove to be an attraction.
It’s easy to see why Wilder is so angry at Bellew. Calling the unbeaten power-puncher the worst heavyweight champ is a pretty disrespectful statement from Bellew – and an inaccurate one. Wilder has his flaws, sure, but were Primo Carnera, John Tate, Charles Martin, Leon Spinks and Frank Bruno, to name just five former heavyweight rulers, really better and more technically gifted than Wilder?
If it did get made, and if the fight was promoted right, maybe a Wilder/Bellew fight would prove a hit with the fans. Both men can punch and anything can happen when two hard-hitters collide. I can think of worse match-ups.
