By Keith Idec

Deontay Wilder hasn’t heard a confident champion when he has listened to Anthony Joshua speak recently.

Wilder wants to fight Joshua next if the undefeated heavyweight champions win their upcoming fights in what would be a highly anticipated showdown. Joshua said during a recent conference call that he “definitely” will fight Wilder sometime in 2018, but probably not next.

Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) thinks Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) should be more confident than ever after getting off the canvas to knock out Wladimir Klitschko in the British superstar’s career-defining fight April 29 at a sold-out Wembley Stadium in London.

“When I hear stuff like that as a champion, as an aggressive champion and as a confident champion, I look at that as a lack of confidence,” Wilder told BoxingScene.com. “He’s talking about ‘sooner or later’ or he’s talking about how long I’ve been a pro and how he needs more time. That’s a sign of weakness in your mentality to me. If you’re a champion, you must be prepared and you must be ready at all times. That’s what it’s about, being a champion. And if you’re not prepared, if you’re not ready for anything that comes your way, you need to give up the belt.”

The 32-year-old Wilder doesn’t understand, either, why Joshua, 28, mentioned the disparity in their experience levels during the aforementioned conference call. Ukraine’s Klitschko, though 41 when Joshua stopped him, had much more experience than Wilder when Joshua agreed to face the long-reigning former champion late last year.

“When he tells me about how long I’ve been a professional, then look at Klitschko,” Wilder said. “Klitschko’s been a professional way longer than I, he’s got way more knockouts on his record than I, he’s got way more wins on his record than I and he’s been around a really long time. So when he’s talking about how I’ve been a professional and he needs more time for me, people don’t wanna hear that. I definitely don’t wanna hear it, and it just shows a sign of weakness.”

Showtime will televise the respective upcoming title defenses for Joshua and Wilder.

Joshua will battle Cameroon’s Carlos Takam (35-3-1, 27 KOs) in a mandatory defense of his IBF title on Saturday night at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Wilder will make a mandatory defense of his WBC championship a week later, November 4, in a rematch against Haiti’s Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.