Former WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder has offered his verdict on the ongoing ‘face of boxing’ debate, shunning the claims of the likes of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Gervonta Davis, who have each claimed to be the poster boy of the sport.
Canelo has long been considered as boxing’s generational star, although some believe that after his recent performances against Dmitry Bivol, Gennadiy Golovkin and John Ryder, it may have opened the door for a new fighter to take the reins at the forefront of the sport and dawn a new era for boxing.
Gervonta Davis claimed that he has taken over after knocking out Ryan Garcia in a pay-per-view blockbuster, but Wilder told ‘The Last Stand Podcast’ that it would take an obscene achievement for any fighter to truly hold such status.
“We’re all the face of boxing. I don’t look at one individual as the ‘face of boxing’, especially when the dudes are in different weight-classes because if you are going to be the face of boxing, then you come up and fight heavyweight too?
“If there’s going to be a ‘face of boxing’ then it’s going to be the man, not just one from these [lower] weight-classes, because they are not going to come up to heavyweight and beat no heavyweight.”
Wilder went on to double down on his claim, stating that the amount of divisions in the sport makes it impossible to pick just one face of boxing.
“How are you going to be the face of boxing when there’s so many different weight-classes in boxing? You’re the face of your weight-class, we are going to put it like that, because if not then you need to come up to the big leagues with the big boys that hit the hardest, let’s see who’s the ‘face’ then. It’s going to be a messed-up ‘face’.”
“When these guys come up, the so-called faces of boxing, and enter into our world and start knocking over some of these heavyweights, then I will be glad to say ‘damn, he is the face of boxing’.”
Wilder will fight on 2023’s standout card, taking on Joseph Parker on December 23.