By Radio Rahim
New York - Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport believes WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) should have a much bigger profile than he actually has at the moment - at least among the American public.
In 2018, Wilder could very well step in the ring with Hearn's superstar fighter - IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs).
A big factor in making that unification take place is the money.
At the moment, Joshua is bringing in the largest boxing crowds on the planet.
For his April stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko, there were a massive crowd of 90,000 fans at Wembley in London. For last month's TKO victory over Carlos Takam, there were 78,000 fans that packed the house at Principality in Cardiff, Wales.
Wilder was in action last weekend, when he retained his world title with a first round demolition of mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Hearn explained that Wilder is practically self-promoting his name - and the British promoter respects the effort because he believes the heavy-handed puncher is getting very little support in terms of promotion.
He feels Wilder is doing a very good job at making himself into a bigger star by actively using social media to interact with fans, working the phones by calling reporters on his own, and constantly trying to keep his name in the press.
"I like what Deontay Wilder is doing right now, because I do feel for him, because he is a one-man band commercially. He's doing all of this driving of his profile himself," Hearn explained to BoxingScene.com.
"He's phoning up people to try to get himself heard. That's the job of a promoter and a publicist. He's proactively doing it himself. And he's doing a great job using Anthony's name, and I don't mean this disrespectfully, to grow interest and to raise his own profile. And I believe that his profile is growing. I believe that he's becoming more of a star now in the U.S. - which is exactly what we want."