At the moment Wilder will fight one more voluntary January 16th then he'll have to fight Povetkin by April ro May or else he'll lose his title; full stop. This is cause Povetkin is mandatory.
However if Tyson Fury were to beat Wladimir Klitschko and then offer to fight Wilder next April or May, would Wilder be allowed to bypass Povetkin since Wilder-Fury would be unifying belts?
EDIT: My topic title makes it sounds like I asked could Wilder not fight Povetkin at all, which I didn't mean. I just meant could Wilder skip Povetkin only in April/May to fight Fury. Obviously if Wilder were to defeat Fury he'd still have to face Povetkin.
Unification fights take precedence over mandatory defences, so the answer is yes, Wilder could fight the winner of Fury/Wlad before Povetkin.
He would lose, of course.
That's good to hear. I assume Povetkin would have no problem with Fury-Wilder happening in April-May if he gets to fight the winner, cos he'd be fighting for the Undisputed championship in a single fight. Rather than having to beat Wilder then go after the other belts.
Unification fights take precedence over mandatory defences, so the answer is yes, Wilder could fight the winner of Fury/Wlad before Povetkin.
He would lose, of course.