Wilder: Anthony Joshua will never be world-wide figure without me!

WBC heavyweight champion is currently slated to take on Luis Ortiz on March 3rd, but as he’s confident that he’ll take care of that bit of business, he’s still looking forward to a huge heavyweight unification match with WBA/IBF champion Anthony Joshua.

Wilder tells ESPN that while Joshua has made a big name for himself in the UK, they still don’t know his name Stateside, and says that if Joshua ever wants to become a true worldwide champion that he’ll have to come see him in the ring.

“I need him and he needs me at the end of the day, unless he doesn’t want to unify. Unless he wants to stay over his side of the pond and let people gravitate to him and be a fake sign of what he [says he] is. But he will never be a global icon. You will never be a world-wide figure without me. All roads lead to Deontay Wilder.

“Everybody wants to see the fight,” said Wilder. “The only people that don’t are his promoters. They already know how big of a risk this really is. They should be worried but how long do they really think the public, the fans of boxing are going to allow them to stay away from me? This is the biggest fight in our era.”

A prospective Wilder-Joshua fight would undoubtedly be a huge fight in the sport of boxing, and a big heavyweight fight usually pays dividends for the sport as a whole. That said, Joshua’s profile is still much higher than that of Deontay Wilder, who is still largely unknown to most casual fans. If you don’t believe me, just bring his name up at any barbershop or sports bar and wait for the crickets.

But hopefully, should Wilder and Joshua both win in their upcoming fights, we can look forward to finally seeing an undisputed heavyweight champion, something boxing hasn’t had in nearly 20 years.