I am ready to fight Joshua for heavyweight title, says Wilder
American knocks out Ortiz to win thriller ‘Baddest man on the planet’ demands unifier
Deontay Wilder claimed he is the “baddest man on the planet” and ready to face Anthony Joshua after retaining his World Boxing Council title here in a heavyweight classic.
Wilder’s seventh defence came with a spectacular 10th-round knockout over unbeaten challenger Luis Ortiz, but only after the American survived a scare in a torrid seventh round when he was out on his feet, though never down.
The toughest fight of Wilder’s career sets up a potential thriller against Joshua, if the Briton can come through his unification contest against New Zealander Joseph Parker in Cardiff on March 31.
Wilder now wants the opportunity to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion, pledging at the Barclays Center to “climb into the ring to face the winner” in Cardiff. He is already contracted as a ringside pundit for Sky’s broadcast of the event, with the other three versions of the heavyweight crown on the line – Joshua’s IBF and WBA belts, and Parker’s WBO strap.
“I’m ready right now for the Joshua-parker winner,” Wilder said after his bout. “I always said that I want to unify. I’m ready whenever those guys are. I am the baddest man on the planet.”
The last man to unify all the belts, Lennox Lewis, said yesterday that the battle of Brooklyn “will do for Wilder what the Wladimir Klitschko fight did for Anthony Joshua. He showed heart and composure on the brink of defeat. It only makes me want to see Wilder and Joshua that much more”.
Wilder – with a record of 40-0, 39 knockouts – survived not only the greatest test of his character but showed an instinct for the finish with a ferocious 10th-round assault to twice floor Ortiz, bringing referee David Fields between the Cuban’s slumped body to halt the action at 2min 5sec into the round.
Ortiz outboxed Wilder in the first four rounds, but was dropped in the fifth, then recovered to almost dethrone Wilder in the seventh, countering with a strong right that stung the champion. Despite a barrage of punches, Wilder somehow stayed on his feet and wandered groggily to his corner as the bell sounded. By the 10th both fighters were trading wildly, though it was the Alabaman who capitalised on the tiring Ortiz.
Meanwhile, in Sheffield, former welterweight world champion Kell Brook put two successive defeats and a 10-month absence behind him with a conclusive secondround stoppage of Belarusian Sergey Rabchenko on his debut at 154 pounds to take the vacant WBC ‘Silver’ super-welterweight crown.