Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has expressed interest in crossing over to the world of MMA, and it seems that Dana White is interested as well.
Wilder currently has a fight on the books with Joseph Parker in Saudi Arabia in December, and also has plans to fight Anthony Joshua in 2024. Despite his level of activity in boxing, Wilder seems fascinated by testing his skills in the UFC.
“I’m thinking about doing both, UFC and boxing. To keep the activity alive and keep it going,”
“I’ll be a dangerous man in the UFC, bro. With those four-ounce gloves?
“I broke the f***ing hitting bag machine with those four-ounce gloves on. That was some real stuff.
-Wilder via Blue Bloods TV
During the post fight press conference at UFC 295, Dana White commented on the intrigue surrounding Wilder making a move to the UFC.
“It’s interesting, you know what I mean?
“You never see this s*** happening. You never see the boxers going, ‘I want to come over there and fight in the UFC.’
“So, we’ll see what happens.”
Dana White asked about Deontay Wilder potentially fighting in MMA.#UFC pic.twitter.com/c5hDjh4Ug2
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) November 12, 2023
In a time when we see so many MMA fighters moving over to boxing, it is refreshing to hear of the prospect of a championship level boxer moving to MMA. But, this would not be the first time this has occurred.
Back in 2010, former IBF champion James Toney made his MMA debut and took on the six-time UFC world champion Randy Couture at UFC 118. Unfortunately for Toney, Couture came in with a sound game plan that completely nullified the boxer’s ability to do any damage.
It took Couture only three minutes to entirely overwhelm Toney, ultimately forcing him to tap out from an arm triangle choke.
I love boxing, but it is ridiculous to assume that the outcome of an MMA fighter vs boxer would be any different to this.
Randy Couture vs James Toney (an all-time boxing great). https://t.co/v3qoLZZSRG pic.twitter.com/BauDoWfQ7I
— BR (@hairybads) April 28, 2022