YOU’VE MISSED THE BIG ONE, JOSHUA...
Wilder’s taunt after Fury seals title bout
Windsor Park was awash with the dog-day rains of summer, but deontay Wilder could feel the heat of anthony Joshua’s envy sweeping across the irish sea.
america’s version of the world heavyweight champion joined Tyson Fury in the ring to confirm they will be fighting for the WBC title in Las Vegas this november, as the Gypsy king bids to complete one of the most remarkable comebacks in boxing history.
Fury rubber-stamped that deal by out-pointing Francesco Pianeta in Belfast on saturday night and Wilder said: ‘Joshua and Eddie Hearn being jealous feels good. By not fighting me they really put a sour taste in people’s mouths. Especially in america.
‘it has really damaged Joshua’s name. Whether it will damage his career and his legacy remains to be determined.’
Joshua defends his WBa, iBF, WBo and iBo titles against alexander Povetkin at Wembley next month, instead of fighting Wilder for the undisputed heavyweight crown.
‘right now he really does look like a protected fighter,’ Wilder said. ‘Every bit, 100 per cent. They never thought me and Fury would happen, but now people can see what was happening with them.
‘They didn’t want to fight me. That was why they didn’t want me to get in the ring with Joshua after his last fight in Cardiff. so i didn’t go there.
‘People were laughing at the Uk and Tyson Fury felt sorry about that. i could sense all along that he was willing to fight me. He is a man of his word and ours is now a much bigger fight than me and Joshua.’
Wilder did not see anything in Fury’s easy victory over Pianeta to make him doubt that he will be victorious in Vegas.
Fury won all ten rounds, looking not only lighter in the second fight of his return to the ring after a two-and-a-half-year lay-off, but more like his old mobile, athletic, quick-handed self. ‘i’m back to my best,’ said Fury. Well, on the way back, yes. But when Pianeta did come out of his defensive shell he landed some crisp left-hooks.
The big-hitting Wilder observed: ‘When i connect like that on Tyson he will be going to sleep. He needed the rounds more than he needed a quick knockout, but for such a big man he doesn’t have real punching power. Certainly not enough to trouble me.’
Fury, who will need to be at his most elusive, replied: ‘i wouldn’t be going to Vegas just for the money. i wouldn’t go for a hundred million if i thought i would lose.
‘i am on course to regain the world titles i never lost in the ring. i will return from Vegas still the lineal world heavyweight champion. still the man.’
Fury then fired another broadside at Joshua: ‘Me and deontay are men who will fight anyone. not like that other chump.’
Wilder does not expect Joshua to come to terms with him next spring, even though Hearn has booked another Wembley stadium date in april.
Wilder said: ‘Eddie has already let it slip that they will be fighting someone else then.’
That may be dillian Whyte. are they waiting for Wilder, at 32, to grow old?
‘i hope not,’ Wilder said. ‘i didn’t start boxing until i was 21, so i’ve not taken much punishment.
‘Heavyweights peak late. George Foreman won a world title at 45. But you can be young like Joshua and fight old.
‘He made his name by beating the champ, but Wladimir klitschko had already been out for two years after being beaten by Fury.
‘That is why Tyson gets the credibility. He beat the man.
‘They won’t let Joshua fight me until his trainer rob McCracken thinks he’s ready. Even then he will have to be forced into it.
‘They’ve built this big facade around him, but then he’s let people down by not fighting me. By avoiding the best. He can still turn it round. They just have to do the right thing.’
That, Wilder insists after the breakdown of their prolonged negotiations, must include ‘a proper percentage’ of the fortune their fight should generate ‘not just that flat fee of $15million with which they tried to degrade me, the baddest man on the planet’.
Wilder’s visit to Belfast brought him into a heated exchange at the weigh-in with Fury’s father John, a scuffle with Tyson in the lobby of the Europa Hotel and a confrontation with another fighting British traveller, Billy Joe saunders, who later made his apologies — accepted — for that incident and for calling Wilder ‘a racist c***’.
of John Fury, the american says: ‘He made my day. i’ve told Tyson to put his daddy in the front row when we fight. i’m happy he’s out (of prison), so he can see his son in a huge fight, making good money. Even though he will see him knocked out.’
Wilder was accused of insensitivity for marching into the Europa, the most bombed hotel in Europe during The Troubles, shouting: ‘Bomb squad’.
Wilder explained this referred to his ring moniker, Bronze Bomber, adding: ‘i was advised not to talk about bombs in ireland, and i am interested in different cultures. But this is boxing.’
since Fury also has a penchant for colourful rhetoric, there is one piece of advice for fans going to Vegas. Wear a tin hat.