Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is willing to fight Oleksandr Usyk, the unified WBO, IBF and WBA titlist next; Wilder is regarded as the hardest puncher in world boxing; Usyk will also have to meet mandatory obligations if the Ukrainian is going to retain all of his titles
Wednesday 22 March 2023 20:59, UK
Deontay Wilder, the former WBC heavyweight champion, is willing to fight Oleksandr Usyk next.
"If the Usyk fight is available, Deontay will take it in a heartbeat," Wilder's manager Shelly Finkel told Sky Sports.
Wilder is widely regarded as the biggest one-punch hitter in the sport, with 42 of his 43 career victories ending inside the distance.
The only opponent Wilder has been unable to beat is Tyson Fury. They drew controversially in their first fight. Then Wilder lost the WBC title to Fury in their rematch before being stopped again in an epic third encounter.
Wilder came back from that last loss to Fury with a stunning first-round knockout win over Robert Helenius.
Fury had looked on course to box Usyk, the unified WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion, at the end of this month.
But it emerged on Wednesday that those talks had ultimately stalled and collapsed.
Usyk's manager Egis Klimas told Sky Sports: "The Usyk side pulled out of further negotiations as the Fury side never had enough [and wanted] to pull everything and all rights to their side.
"I don't want to go into details as all negotiations were confidential but I will tell you one thing, when a fighter doesn't want to fight he overprices himself knowing that the fight won't happen.
"They most likely forgot that Usyk is holding the majority of belts in the heavyweight division and Tyson just has one.
"They claimed Tyson is a face and must have all the rights, but look at statistics on pay-per-view with Tyson vs Chisora and Usyk vs Chisora and then tell me who is who?"
The Fury fight would have been a huge event but Usyk has no shortage of alternative opponents lining up to challenge him.
The WBA has indicated it will instruct Usyk to fight its mandatory challenger - Britain's Daniel Dubois next - if Usyk cannot present a signed contract for the Fury fight by April 1.
In an exciting fight last December, Dubois rose from the canvas to stop Kevin Lerena and win a secondary belt from the WBA. That essentially solidified him as the mandatory challenger for the WBA title Usyk holds.
But Dubois injured his knee in that fight, so he would need to recover from that injury before he could fight Usyk.
That could mean the IBF mandatory, Filip Hrgovic might get the next shot at Usyk, although London's Joe Joyce, an Interim title-holder with the WBO, will be pushing for his own fight with the Ukrainian if he comes through his next fight, a bout with Zhilei Zhang next month.
