This year looks to be a bright one for heavyweight boxing, especially with champions like Deontay Wilder being vocal about his quest to bring all of the boxing titles together and follow in the footsteps of his inspiration, Muhammad Ali, to make the division exciting once again.
At a press conference held in midtown Manhattan on Thursday, Wilder conducted a scrum with the media to answer all sorts of questions about his third title defense against Polish powerhouse Artur Szpilka and plenty of other hot topics.
In the video at the top of this post, Wilder talks about his feud with Tyson Fury and why having a feud like this is important to the sport. “Tyson Fury is one of those guys that brings excitement to the sport…we need that for this sport. People remember that and they will bring that up for years and years…he said after Klitschko he wants to fight me, and I want to make him a promise that 2016 you will fight me once and for all, let’s get this over and done with.”
Wilder also disccused who he wants to fight next, how he sees his fight against Szpilka going and why this will be “the best Artur Szpilka we have seen”, and says that he will get a knockout over him in four rounds or less.
“Many people have said that Klitschko was boring and if you look at it, they were inactive in the ring and non-existant outside of the ring, and so to make this sport great, to make it exciting, I feel as a champion you have to be exciting and exist in side the ring as well as outside the ring. My perfect idol that I look towards that made the division what it was, excitement with the heavyweights, was the great one, Muhammad Ali, who was active inside the ring and outside the ring with people and stuff.”
In this section, Wilder talks about finally coming to fight in Brooklyn and how excited he is to do this and make a statement in New York, why he took a risk against Artur Szpilka when he did not need to defend his belt against this Polish heavyweight, his plans for the division and his goals to unify the heavyweight titles in boxing, and his love for Muhammad Ali.
Lastly, in this segment Wilder talks about the incident with Artur Szpilka during a photo-shoot the day before that turned physical, and what he learned from Lennox Lewis and his trainers and teases what fans have not seen from him yet in the ring as he nears 10,000 hours in his training. He also talks about why he is the most athletic heavyweight in the division and the importance and responsibility of holding a title like this, his “lady friend” Sophia, the WBC Heavyweight title that “he took from a dungeon and now she’s in a palace”, and why his wife is okay with him having two ladies in his life.
WBC Heavyweight World Champion Deontay Wilder and bruising Polish contender Artur Szpilka will meet on Saturday, January 16 inside The Barclays Center. The live telecast will be on Showtime, starting at 10 PM EST. Non-subscribers of the premium channel will also be able to enjoy the fight since this is a preview weekend for the station, and viewers will also be able to watch it for free streamed on Youtube, so there is no excuse to miss this event.