Deontay Wilder is keen to get back to the top of the heavyweight division and claims that it is ‘dead’ without him.
Wilder reigned supreme over the heavyweights for several years. He first picked up the WBC belt with a points win over Bermane Stiverne in 2015 and kept it until losing to Tyson Fury in their second fight in 2020, having drawn the first time around in 2018.
In the meantime, he was rarely pushed hard and knocked out the likes of Luis Ortiz, Chris Arreola and Eric Molina before back-to-back knockout defeats to Fury.
Most recently, he got a swift first-round knockout win over Robert Helenius in October 2022 and all the talk since then has been of a huge fight with Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia in 2024.
Speaking to ESNEWS, Wilder was asked to confirm his status against the winner of the upcoming WBA, WBO and IBF world title fight between holder Oleksandr Usyk and mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois.
“Yep, I’m definitely the mandatory for that, so all doors are shut. You know, close all sides. I’m the mandatory for the WBA, and I’m the mandatory for the WBC, I’m number two in the IBO and number three in one of the other ones.”
Wilder then claimed he is back on the hunt for the belts.
“So I mean I’m right there in all the ranking so it’s just a matter of time before me being back on top and having all he belts.
I’m just sitting back and relaxing, enjoying life and letting all these other fighters do things because as we know, and this is true fact, the heavyweight division has been fucking dead, bro. Now you don’t feel no electricity at all.”