Deontay Wilder labelled Anthony Joshua a “coward” as the American shared his opinions on his British heavyweight rivals. Joshua claimed Matchroom Boxing recently “had meetings” over a potential fight with Wilder this year, but the man from Alabama was quick to shut down his rival when asked about him.
Wilder, known as the ‘Bronze Bomber,’ is currently focused on the eleventh straight defence of his WBC crown against Tyson Fury on February 22.
In an interview with ESPN in Los Angeles, the city that staged his thrilling draw with Fury in their first bout in December 2018, Wilder put across his strong views towards AJ: “Just a straight coward, man. I just think coward, and that’s it.”
If Joshua wins his next probable bout against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev, he is widely tipped to fight the winner of Wilder-Fury II, potentially in Saudi Arabia where his rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in December took place.
For Wilder, Fury is more of a rival than Joshua right now considering he’s fighting him soon, but the self-proclaimed ‘baddest man on the planet’ was full of praise for his next opponent.
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“He’s a funny guy, he’s a skilful fighter, good fighter. And for me, in my opinion, he’s a breath of fresh air, being in the heavyweight division,” Wilder said of Fury.
“Being able to have great fights with a person that can help me promote a fight because I’ve come up and so many guys don’t talk, or they don’t want to say what they want to do, or hype the crowd. It’s always been me promoting.
“Then, when I had him come along, it was good promotion and we can cross-promote with his team, and make great fights happen. So that’s what I think about him, when I hear his name.”
Wilder and Fury’s second fight has parallels to ‘Super Fight II’ between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1974, a global event and the second chapter of a potentially legendary sporting rivalry.
The heavyweight boxing triangle of Fury, Wilder and Joshua of the 21st century is reminiscent of the one Ali, Frazier and George Foreman had in the 1970s.
One man hoping to upset this triangle over the next two years will be Dillian Whyte, who has repeatedly expressed his wish to secure a fight with one of the big three in the heavyweight division.
Since losing to Joshua in December 2015, Whyte has won his last 11 fights and forced his way back into contention.
But Wilder doesn’t think much of the challenge he poses and his opinions were just as strong towards Whyte and they were towards Joshua.
“This is a guy who is just a compulsive liar, he’s talking about this thing of wanting to fight me, but it’s all lies,” he added.
“He had multiple chances of fighting me. Just to name a few, I told him to fight [Luis] Ortiz, not only did I tell him, I gave him my word [I will be fighting next], but the WBC mandated him to do so and he didn’t.
“I want to go even nastier with my words with him, but my energy is not allowing me to come up with nothing to say. That means something.”