Deontay Wilder: I'm Backing Martin, But It's 50-50 With Joshua

By Edward Chaykovsky

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35KOs) is backing his countryman, IBF champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21KOs), to power past Olympic gold medal winner Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15KOs) this coming Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.

Martin captured the vacant world title in January with a third round stoppage of Czar Glazkov. That fight took place on the undercard of Wilder's ninth round round of Artur Szpilka  at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Wilder is going to keep a close eye on the contest.

The winner of Martin-Joshua will become a future unification opponent for Wilder - as long as he retains his title against mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin on May 21st in Russia.

"Of course I am going to go with my fellow countryman," Wilder told Sky Sports. "I feel Anthony Joshua hasn't fought a top fighter like this yet. He [Martin] is going to be awkward. He's a southpaw and that is a big thing because I don't think Joshua has faced a southpaw yet, so he is going to find he is very, very awkward - both ways.

"This guy has as much height and reach as I do but he is awkward on top of that. I think it's going to be a good fight and I am looking forward to seeing what happens and I want to see the result. I make it a 50-50 - this is too close a fight to call. If Joshua wins he's definitely the man in England, so that is a big prize for him to go with it.

"And if he loses, I think a lot of people are going to be heartbroken and sad about it. This is part of boxing and that's how it goes, so we'll see how it goes."