Deontay Wilder has some unfinished business to attend to.
Wilder has seemingly accepted that he won’t be next up for a unification bout with Anthony Joshua as WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker has become the clear front-runner with regards to Joshua’s first fight of the new year.
Negotiations with Parker’s team have progressed although the stumbling block of the purse split remains in place, with the Kiwi’s promoter refusing to accept less than a 65-35 divide.
In all likelihood, Joshua vs. Parker will go down at some stage in the first few months of 2018 and, while that happens, Wilder is looking to extend his own unbeaten record.
‘The Bronze Bomber’ is eager to go through with his previously scheduled fight with Luis Ortiz, a bout which fell apart after the Cuban heavyweight failed a pre-fight drugs test in September.
Wilder went on to fight Bermane Stiverne for a second time and knocked him out cold in what will go down as one of the most brutal knockouts of 2017.
“I think Joshua and them (Parker) I heard (are fighting) sometime in March,” Wilder told 78sportstv, via BoxingNewsandViews. “Maybe the end of March, some time in there.
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“I’m ready to go as soon as possible. It would have been a good promotion to fight on the same card with him fighting in the day, me fighting in the night. Something like that.
“But I’ve got to go early though. I’m looking to come back out for Luis Ortiz. Why not? The WBC got him back in there and re-instated him. We were supposed to fight before Stiverne. That didn’t happen because obviously what happened with Ortiz. He did what he did.”
Ortiz has just been cleared to fight again by the WBC and he will step up on short notice to fight Daniel Martz in a 10-round clash on Friday in Florida.
He will not be allowed to compete in any WBA-sanctioned bouts for a year but, given that Wilder is the WBC heavyweight champion, that fight remains a possibility.
“I really want him,” Wilder added.
“I want to punish him. I want to really punish him.”
