Deontay Wilder has chosen to continue his career after his debilitating loss last weekend against former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, putting his sagging career on shaky ground.
The defeat for the 38-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) puts his record at 1-3 in his last four fights since 2020.
Wilder’s trainer, Malik Scott, still believes in him, and he’s charted a path to start his rebuilding, but the names he’s listed look more like cash-out type fights than ones he has a good chance of winning.
From Favorite to Fallen
Deontay had been expected to make easy work of the underdog Parker (34-3, 23 KOs) in the co-feature spot on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ event, with a huge-money fight already signed for March 9th against Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia.
Joe Joyce had knocked Parker out in the eleventh round a year ago, so he was thought to be a safe choice for Deontay to pick up a fairly easy win. Besides a controversial decision win over Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2016 while fighting at home in New Zealand, Parker had never beaten anyone remotely good.
The Joshua fight is now off the table for Wilder unless the Saudis choose to go through with it, which is unlikely.
AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has talked nonstop about wanting him to fight Filip Hrgovic next if the IBF title is vacated by the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk, winner of their February 17th fight.
If that belt becomes vacant, Hearn will likely go in that direction for AJ, and he hopes that he can capture the title and use it to get a better deal against the Fury-Usyk rematch winner.
Hearn is counting on Fury winning the second fight with Usyk, as that would set up the lucrative Joshua-Fury fight for either late 2024 or early 2025.
Scott’s optimistic quartet
“We got Andy Ruiz Jr, who’s still looking for some action, Usyk, and Fury; Daniel Dubois is there right now in a very good position. There are a few guys out there right now,” Malik Scott said to FightHype about potential opponents for Deontay Wilder’s bounce-back fight.
Malik’s options for Wilder:
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Daniel Dubois
- Tyson Fury
- Oleksandr Usyk
“But what’s most important to me is Deontay being right, spiritually, mentally, and physically all in one; that’s more my concern because I know that when Deontay is all the way right, none of those guys can beat him,” said Malik.
With Deontay fighting once every 14 months, it’s a tall ask for him to be mentally, spiritually, and physically ready for his comeback fight if there is one.
If Wilder stays out of the ring for that long, he should forget about fighting any of the four options that Malik has for him and focus instead on a journeyman like Dillian Whyte or Dereck Chisora.
“Right now, after taking that loss and that type of performance, I’m not that keen on calling out guys. I’m focusing on the bigger picture with him getting spiritually, mentally, and physically right,” said Malik.
