By Keith Idec
Deontay Wilder was ringside for Anthony Joshua’s remarkable comeback and knockout against Wladimir Klitschko on April 29.
The amazing atmosphere inside a sold-out Wembley Stadium made the unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion wonder what it would be like if he fought Joshua. Wilder told host Randy Gordon for this week’s episode of “At the Fights” on Sirius XM’s Rush (Channel 93) that he believes a Wilder-Joshua fight could draw a crowd in excess of 100,000 and that their fight could generate “half-a-billion dollars” in overall revenue.
The outspoken knockout artist also told Gordon that a fight between him and England’s Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs), the IBF/IBO/WBA heavyweight champion, would be bigger than the recently announced Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin middleweight championship showdown. Wilder’s rationale is that a fight that pits two undefeated heavyweight champions that have combined to knock out all but one opponent simply is bigger than any fight in the lower weight classes.
“Yes,” Wilder replied when Gordon asked him about Wilder-Joshua being bigger than Alvarez-Golovkin. “Come on, now. Come on. You’re talking about little guys. You know, we’re talking about little guys. We’re talking about guys that can go 12 rounds. Now when you’re talking about the big boys, when you’re talking about the big boys you don’t know if you’re gonna go out in the first round. You don’t know who gonna get knocked out. That’s the thing about the heavyweight division. People come to see knockouts when they come to see these fights.
“It’s OK to see skill and fast, little guys hitting each other and stuff like that. Sometimes you may get the knockout. Sometimes you don’t, you know. These two guarantee with the power, especially Triple-G, but you know styles always make fights. So we don’t know if we’re gonna get a knockout or not. We know it’s gonna be a good fight. It should be at least, with the resumes and the way the guys are shaped and the histories that they’ve done. But the heavyweights, when you get a massive heavyweight, Deontay Wilder, versus an Anthony Joshua, come one. Come on. Come on.”
Mexico’s Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) will challenge Kazkhstan’s Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion, on September 16 at a site to be determined.
Meanwhile, the 31-year-old Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs), of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, hopes to face WBO champion Joseph Parker (23-0, 18 KOs) in a heavyweight championship unification fight in July. If his handlers can arrange that fight and Wilder defeats New Zealand’s Parker, Wilder wants to fight Joshua either toward the end of this year or sometime in 2018.
Joshua owes the 41-year-old Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs) an immediate rematch, but Ukraine’s Klitschko could opt to retire after Joshua got off the canvas in the sixth round to stop Klitschko in the 11th round. Whatever happens next, Wilder is thrilled to be part of the heavyweight division’s revival.
“We all know that the heavyweight division is the cream of the crop,” Wilder said. “We know this. It’ll always be no matter what [is happening] outside the heavyweight division. No matter what. No disrespect to no fighter. I respect all my fighters, all my fighters that get in the ring and risk their lives, whether it’s for themselves or for their families or whoever. My hat goes [off] in salute. But we know the heavyweight division is the cream of the crop. And right now it’s on fire, and it’s only gonna be even more flames to it. It’s only gonna be more fuel added to this fire. And this is what we need. I can feel it.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.