WBC heavyweight world champion Deontay Wilder is ready to consider other opponents after talks for his unification blockbuster with Anthony Joshua broke down.
Wilder and Joshua had been on a collision course for next year but Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, refused to split the purse evenly which led to the American withdrawing from negotiations.
Now, the heavy-hitting 32-year-old has turned his attentions back to Luis Ortiz and Alexander Povetkin – two opponents he had been scheduled to fight, before they both failed drug tests – who are both on the comeback trail after being cleared by the relevant sanctioning bodies.
World recognition and credible opponents have both been elusive in the WBC champ’s nine-year career.
And though fights with Ortiz and Povetkin may not prove to give him either, Wilder is still looking forward to 2018 and proving his talk is the most authentic in a division full of braggart heavyweights.
“We have a lot of fighters. We have a lot of guys coming back. You got Luis Ortiz and Alexander Povetkin,” Wilder told ESPN.