American boxer challenges Joshua to unify four heavyweight boxing belts

Deontay Wilder, who has held the WBC belt since 2015, wants to soon fight the British boxer who defeated legend Klitschko on April 29.

Wilder was at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to watch Anthony Joshua defend his IBF title and win the WBA belt from Wladimir Klitschko via technical knockout.

Wilder (right) wants to unify four championship belts.

Currently, the four major heavyweight world titles belong to three different fighters. Joshua holds the IBF and WBA – the oldest boxing organisation’s titles. Wilder is the WBC champion. The WBO belt belongs to Joseph Parker.

Wilder now wants to win the WBO to create a position equal to Joshua before the "giant" fight to become the absolute champion.

“First of all I want to fight Joseph Parker, because I want his WBO belt,” Wilder said. “If I had the rights to do world title fights, I would like to have a huge fight with Anthony Joshua at the end of this year or next year to unify all four belts.”

*Joshua's victory overWladimir Klitschko

The 31-year-old American also left open the possibility of accepting a fight in the UK, despite Joshua having won all 19 of his fights in his homeland. “I’m ready to go to the UK if necessary, because I want the unification fight to happen anywhere soon.”

Asked if a fight with Joshua could happen as early as the end of 2017, Wilder said: “It could happen. My next step is the Joseph Parker fight. Once I get the WBO belt, I can immediately start preparing for the unification fight. I need to have two belts like Joshua before we fight so we can make a huge fight.”

“It’s the best thing for heavyweight boxing right now. The world heavyweight division is hot right now, and it would be even hotter if we could get a world champion,” Wilder said. “We need to get the baddest guy on the planet, a guy, a name, a face for all the boxing organizations in the world.”

Wilder believes that if there is a unification fight between him and Joshua, it will be an even bigger fight than the one that attracted 90,000 spectators to Wembley Stadium on Saturday 29 April.

According to VNE