Former world champion and Sky Sports broadcaster Carl Froch believes WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder made a big mistake by refusing to fly over to Cardiff, to sit ringside for tonight's WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO unification between world champions Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker at Principality Stadium.
Wilder was scheduled to be ringside as part of the Sky Sports broadcast team, but changed his mind earlier this week.
What made Wilder walk away from the opportunity, was Joshua - and his promoter Eddie Hearn - making it clear that Wilder would not be allowed to enter the ring in the post-fight aftermath.
Froch felt Wilder could have easily worked something out where he would have been allowed to enter the ring and go side by side with Joshua to create an immediate mountain of hype for the two of them to fight each other.
He would have liked to see Wilder take a page from Tyson Fury - who in early 2016 flew down to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and just charged inside the ring to confront Wilder on live television.
“He should’ve come out really, it would be big. It builds it [a fight with Joshua] but I don’t think he was given any credibility in terms of - wanted to get in the ring and they wouldn’t give him his little spot in the ring," Froch told IFL TV.
“Why not just jump in the ring? If he wants to do that, come over and just do a Tyson Fury and just bombard, just get in the ring after, when he’s done his interview. Have a bit of respect, you can’t be out of order but climb in the ring and ask politely, ‘can I just have a chat with AJ’ or just get in front of the cameras on the fight.
“He should be here, Deontay Wilder should be here, he should be making some noise and it builds the fight because this is the biggest stage. This is the chance for him to really now to drive home the fact that he wants to fight AJ.”
