WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has his sights set on the winner of Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko’s rematch in an attempt to unify the heavyweight division.
Fury currently holds the WBA Super and WBO belts, although he was stripped of the IBF title he also won last November, after Klitschko exercised his rematch clause, leaving Vyacheslav Glazkov and Charles Martin to battle it out for the vacant title next Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Wilder (35-0, 34KO’s) returns on the same card, making the third defence of the title he ripped from Bermane Stiverne’s grasp last January, when he defends against Poland’s Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15KO’s), but the “Bronze Bomber” already has his eye on the rematch between Fury and Klitschko, which is likely to happen in the UK this year.
The Tuscaloosa, Alabama star agreed with the notion that Klitschko never adjusted to Fury’s size and had become accustomed to fighting smaller men. He claims that no matter what size his opponent is, nothing will faze him.
The 30-year-old told BoxingScene.com: “Whoever wins the rematch, I want the winner. Because I want all the belts. I want to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
“Throughout my career, I’ve fought tall and small. I mixed my opponents up because I didn’t want to fall into that trap-fest of getting used to smaller guys, because you can get used to the opponent that you fight.
“The smaller guys, you can get used to that, because you already know what you’re going to do if you want to bail out – clinch on him, put your body weight on him to get him tired. When you fight bigger guys – it’s different. I’ve been up and down with both, so I’m comfortable with big guys and smaller guys.”
Should Wilder get the better of Szpilka next Saturday, there is still the chance the WBC will force him to make a mandatory defence, most likely to be against Russian Alexander Povetkin, a former heavyweight champion, who has only lost to Klitschko, on points, and is riding a four fight winning streak, all by way of knockout.
However, there could well be another unification, providing Charles Martin gets the better of Glazkov, as both men are managed by Al Haymon as part of the PBC. Regardless, it’s exciting times in the heavyweight division and we could well see an undisputed champion by the end of 2016.
- Matthew Bevan / @MBevs68
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