Deontay Wilder’s promoter will forbid his world heavyweight champion from coming to London for a test fight to qualify for a Wembley Stadium blockbuster against Anthony Joshua.
Wilder has been told by Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn that he must beat Dillian Whyte at the O2 Arena on February 3 to prove he is good enough for a world title unification battle with Joshua next summer.
‘Ridiculous,’ says Lou DiBella, following Wilder’s one-round demolition of Bermane Stiverne in New York on Saturday night, adding: ‘When they meet next year – if Joshua takes the fight – Deontay will knock him out.
Deontay Wilder won’t have a UK test fight to qualify for Anthony Joshua bout, says Lou DiBella
AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants the Bronze Bomber to face Dillian Whyte (R) in Feburary
But DiBella labelled that plan ‘ridiculous’ and warned AJ that Wilder would knock him out
‘Deontay is the undefeated WBC champion and has knocked out all his opponents. He’s not going to England for some bozo fight because some promoter over there wants to give one of his ordinary heavyweights a pay-day.
‘Wilder v Joshua is the fight everyone wants, between the two best heavyweights in the world. I have nothing but respect for AJ but Deontay is the hardest puncher on the planet and when he hits him flush like Wladimir Klitschko hit him he’ll be asleep, not getting up.
‘Hearn is talking bull about Deontay needing to build up his profile. Really? He’s the scariest heavyweight on the planet. And who the f*** is Whyte? He lost to Joshua. He almost lost to Dereck Chisora. He’s just looked like a sleeping pill against Robert Helenius. No-one in America knows who the hell he is.
‘We all know that Eddie Hearn has a lot of bread and was born with a silver spoon in his mouth but we don’t have to march to his marching orders. We don’t have to go to England because he says so.’
Wilder retained his WBC world heavyweight title with a first round KO of Bermane Stiverne
His promoter DiBella has claimed: ‘We don’t have to go to England because (Hearn) says so’
DiBella suspects Hearn is wary of risking Joshua’s unbeaten record against Wilder, who says outright to AJ: ‘Stop running and ducking me and fight.’
DiBella says: ‘If they want more time to polish Joshua and get him more experience then just say so. Don’t hide behind all this nonsense. Eddie says the fight will happen in 2018. Guess I’ll just have to take his word for it.’
That puts Hearn in a corner. Joshua is eager to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis, an ambition which has to involve fighting Wilder. Also, as a man proud of his willingness to fight anyone, he will not want to be perceived as ducking his biggest challenge of all.
When Hearn texted Joshua that Wilder had trimmed down to 220lbs for the Stiverne fight AJ, who scaled a career-heaviest 254lbs against Carlos Takam a week earlier, messaged back: ‘I’ll eat him.’
That was tantamount to an instruction to get the match made.
It comes after the first hint of unrest among Joshua’s massive support. There was some booing from the 80,000 crowd in Cardiff when the referee stopped his WBA and IBF world titles defence against the significantly smaller Takam.
Joshua, the WBA and IBF heavyweight king, told his promoter Hearn that he would ‘eat’ Wilder
Fans tend to set the agenda and in the end, Floyd Mayweather had to fight Manny Pacquiao
Following that, Hearn vowed to make the big fights happen.
Not all the fans will be content if that involves Joshua fighting WBO champion Joseph Parker and then a WBA mandatory challenger before even thinking about facing the Bronze Bomber from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
DiBella has also scotched speculation that the impending nomination of former Joshua victim Dominic Breazeale as his mandatory WBC challenger is a stumbling block to a fight with Joshua.
He says: ‘We don’t have to worry about that for at least a year. Nor about Eddie Hearn. He doesn’t set the mandatories and he doesn’t control boxing.’
Ultimately, the fans tend to set the agenda. In the end, Floyd Mayweather had to fight Manny Pacquiao.
The delay did help build the first $600million fight but – at 32, four years older than Joshua – Wilder cannot afford to wait forever.
Nor will the public.
Lee Selby girded himself to successfully defend his world featherweight title in the week his mother died this summer.
He knew she would have wanted him to keep on with his comeback after enduring 15 months of inactivity caused not least by late cancellations of fights for which he had trained assiduously.
A week later he lost his grandfather.
For this likeable Welshman 2018 cannot come soon enough. It will be the year in which he expects to claim fame, fortune and wide recognitionof his quicksilver talent in major fights in big football grounds.
First, he must crank back into action at London’s Olympic Copper Box Arena on December 9, when both he and James DeGale defend their world titles on the same Frank Warren bill.
Lee Selby (right) has had to deal with the death of his mother and grandfather this year
Win that, against an opponent yet to be named, and he is promised a glamourous stadium defence at Leeds United’s Elland Road in the spring against mandatory challenger Josh Warrington.
Win that, too, and he will be heading for Windsor Park for the showdown he has been chasing for years, against Belfast Jackal Carl Frampton. Selby muses: ‘I had started thinking that instead of calling me out as world champion, other boxers were avoiding me.’
The big fights are being made possible by Selby returning to Warren, who is also the promoter of Warrington and Frampton.
Selby says: ‘As well as me, Frank has the two other best featherweights in the country on his books and that makes these fights a lot easier to make. I know Frank is loyal to Warrington but loyalty is good – and he’ll soon be swapping over to me.’
He is undaunted by the prospect of boxing Warrington and Frampton on their home turf, saying: ‘No problem. Every time them Leeds fans open their mouths the only sound I’ll hear will be pound coins jingling.
‘The same in Belfast. I boxed Martin Lindsay over there. The crowd booed me on the way in and some of the stuff they were calling me I couldn’t repeat. Then, when I beat him, they gave me a standing ovation on the way out.’
Selby will defend his world title on the same day James DeGale will look to retain his
Selby has remained focused on training throughout his absence from the ring and he says: ‘The training helped me with the grieving process for my mother and my grandfather, who was my biggest fan.
‘Boxing is my gateway from everything. It helped me with the grieving process. I’m at peace with my mind clear when I’m spending hours in the gym.’
That brings clarity, also, to his greatest ambition. To follow Anthony Joshua and his Welsh idol Joe Calzaghe into Cardiff’s Principality Stadium for a huge fight in front of a vast crowd.
He says: ‘That’s the dream. The main goal. I’ve seen Joe do it and I would love to emulate that.’
Selby, whose only defeat in 36 fights came in an early four-rounder, says: ‘It’ s been a tough year for me emotionally, I’ve had no luck in boxing, no luck in my life in general. Now, hopefully, that’s turning.’
It would take a hard heart not to wish him well.