Wilder: If Ruiz Wins, We’ll Fight
Tonight marks the first of two heavyweight boxing title fights within a three-week span, as Deontay Wilder defends the WBC heavyweight championship against Luis Ortiz tonight, and Andy Ruiz Jr. defends the WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO titles against Anthony Joshua on December 7.
Wilder will have to get through Ortiz first in order to fight Fury again, but he has a plan to become the undisputed heavyweight champion — so long as Ruiz defeats Joshua.
Wilder hopes after wins over Ortiz and Fury, Ruiz will still hold the WBA, IBF and WBO titles by the time the second half of 2020 arrives. This way, the two Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) stablemates can meet to determine an undisputed champion.
Whether this plan can truly come to fruition remains to be seen, as the Ruiz-Joshua II winner will have to deal with mandatory challenges in Kubrat Pulev (IBF) and Oleksandr Usyk (WBO).
Then of course, Wilder says, if Joshua defeats Ruiz, this plan may be all for naught, as he feels Joshua doesn’t truly want to fight him.
“If Ruiz wins, we’re definitely going to fight. With Joshua, I’m not holding my breath,” Wilder said. “They don’t want to fight me, and I don’t think they ever want to fight someone like me, which is fine, because people can’t be manipulated anymore. A lot of people are already predicting that if Joshua wins, there will never be a unification fight with me. They understand after Ruiz beat him as to why he was running from me. I wash my hands from that situation. I’m not going to put too much energy because they would never want to fight me. I’m too dangerous.
I’m the only fighter who walks it like he talks it. I talk my sh-t but I back it up every time in devastating knockout fashion. People love a showman who can talk, but ones that can actually fulfill it. That’s what I give to people.
Wilder added that at the age of 34, he sees himself competing — and being on top — in boxing’s heavyweight scene for another six years.
“My good deed will be done, and I will be free, leaving as the baddest man on the planet,” Wilder said. “I have tremendous power in this sport of boxing. I’m the baddest man on the planet. I’m the best in the world when it comes to boxing. What other fighter do you know fighting guys who are 20 to 50 pounds heavier? And I still knock them out in devastating fashion.
“I’m just happy to be who I am. God has blessed me. I am the man, and I know my position and where I stand. I’ve been saying it for years, and now, people are finally opening their eyes. The tables have turned and the conversations have reversed about me. People have nowhere to go anymore other than understand and recognize that I am the man in boxing.”
Original Story: Boxing Scene