The 30 year-old spoke to WBN in an exclusive interview recently to outline his plans to finally put the all the major organisation’s belts together and be the one and only undisputed top division ruler.
Wilder has so far smashed his way to becoming world champion by stopping his first 32 opponents inside four rounds before picking up the WBC title by out-pointing Bermane Stiverne in January 2015. Wilder has subsequently backed up his title win by stopping Eric Molina and Johann Duhaupas in June and September respectively and current stands on an eye-popping 35-0 with 34 KO’s.
As Wladimir Klitschko is gearing up to defend the remaining WBA, IBF, IBO and WBO belts against Tyson Fury in Germany on November 28, Wilder sees an ideal opportunity on the horizon to fully clean up at 200 pound plus.
To begin with, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ was asked by World Boxing News whether he believes a fight between him and the winner of Klitschko v Fury will happen within a year, to which Wilder gave the following answer: “Most definitely, most definitely. That’s what I am looking forward to. I am ready to unify the division and I am ready for there to be one champion, once and for all.
He then continued by giving his views on the current title situation: “All these belts are starting to get ridiculous. There are so many belts and people get so confused about who’s this champion? What’s that champion? What this belt is? – And it’s confusing,” Wilder told WBN.
“We know what the federations are trying to do as everybody wants to make money – I understand that, you know. So when you have multiple fees and belts that can be applied to multiple champions, then you’re making money as each fighter is going to be fighting periodically throughout the year.
“I know it makes sense, but I think it would be a great thing to just have one heavyweight champion of the world, once and for all. Not all WBC, IBF and all that champion of the world, especially for the heavyweight division – which is the cream of the crop.
“I have the most legit belt in all of boxing. The most precious, most well-known belt. You know a lot of people want to say that Wladimir is the champion. Yeah, he’s a champion, of course because he has the rest of the belts, but I’m the WBC heavyweight champ and every fighter who wants to be champion wants the WBC belt. Even Wladimir – he wants the WBC title.
“The only thing different between me and him is that he has many belts, but I have the most important belt and it think it would make the division that much better to have one unified champion.
“Whoever can do it will see their career take off even more. Especially with me as I am an American and the fans have been yearning for that one heavyweight champion because they look so much on the past champions. I think once I do it will have a major impact on my life and my career too and that’s when everything really starts for me.”
Having faced some criticism for his level of opposition and had the legitimacy of his status at the top questioned, Wilder is keen to prove those doubters wrong and says the only way to do that is to beat Klitschko should the Ukrainian retain his belts against Fury.
“I think that’s what it’s going to take as you can’t change people’s minds,” he said. “And even though there are some people’s minds you can’t change, there are those that are waiting to finally say; ‘this is the man’ after all this time and they are the people we are looking to win over.
“Once I become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world it’s going to change the game, for sure,” added Wilder.
A return on January 16 against a top WBC rated opponent is already in the pipeline for Wilder, who would then be free to pursue a unification with Klitschko / Fury.
All sanctioning bodies have made it plain in the past that a Klitschko-Wilder unification fight would could well above any mandatory offering against current number one contender Alexander Povetkin and could finally see the crowning of a first undisputed king since Lennox Lewis reigned supreme more than a decade ago.
