by David P. Greisman

There’s a lot that can get in the way of a fight between heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who has three of the major sanctioning body belts, and Deontay Wilder, who has the fourth.

For one, they each have mandatory defenses due and opponents who would want shots at the title and the commensurate paydays. Then there are network and promotional allegiances; Klitschko has contracts overseas in Europe and is working with HBO, while Wilder is with Al Haymon and his Premier Boxing Champions venture on a number of other networks.

Wilder remains optimistic, while understanding what it’ll take.

“It can happen but it’s going to take a lot of money due to a lot of mandatories that’s lined up,” Wilder said on April 24. “And people want their title shot. You have to do sit-aside money. Just like me, my sit-aside money was $10 million because I wanted to fight for that title bad. That’s why I worked my butt off so much. I got to that point, and I wanted nothing else.”

He sees 2016 as a likelier time for the Klitschko fight.

“We’ll see what happens. He wants the [WBC] belt. I want to fight for the rest of his belts to unify the division. It’s going to be good to bring the belts back to America. We haven’t had an undisputed heavyweight champion in years. It would be my pleasure to be able to do so,” Wilder said.

Haymon doesn’t currently have a working relationship with HBO, which is seemingly the sole major boxing broadcaster in the United States not airing PBC.

“I don’t feel it’ll be a hindrance. I think all those guys will come together and we’ll go with what makes sense,” Wilder said. “It’ll be one of the biggest heavyweight bouts in years. Who would want to miss out on that? By that time, those guys will iron out their differences among each other and let the fight happen and give the people what they want to see. I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com