Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith is confused as to why WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder made a decision to have a rematch with Luis Ortiz this September.
Smith's company promotes WBA, IBF, IBO, WBO champion Anthony Joshua, who is Wilder's biggest rival in the weight division.
Wilder recently announced that he agreed to face Ortiz in the coming months. Wilder knocked out Ortiz in tenth round when they collided last March.
Wilder was in action two weeks ago, when he blasted out mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale in one brutal round at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Joshua is back in the ring on Saturday night, when he takes on Andy Ruiz at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The contest will be Joshua's United States debut.
Smith's company was hoping, provided Joshua is victorious, to stage a fight with Wilder in the fall.
He doesn't see a reason for Wilder to face Ortiz a second time.
“What’s the point? He’s already beaten him once, why do it again?” Smith said to Boxing Social.
“But, he knows that he’s going to have it put on him after the weekend and he’s already seen it. The only question [Joshua has seen] is ‘when are you going to fight Wilder?’
“Now, people can’t really ask that, as Wilder’s done his own thing. Like we thought he would. I don’t know what the game plan is and I don’t know what the thought process was, but he’s done it now.
“They obviously hastily did it, because they didn’t announce a date or a venue, they must have just thought ‘we’ll do it now, because otherwise we’re going to come under a lot of pressure’. I just don’t get the mindset, why wouldn’t you wait three days? The only reason he didn’t do it is because he didn’t want the pressure of that ‘why aren’t you fighting AJ?’ [question].”
