WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has no issue fighting Anthony Joshua in a heavyweight title unification but would be warier now of travelling to Britain, in light of recent events, than he perhaps would have been last year.
That’s according to the Alabama man’s coach, Jay Deas, who believes the case involving Dillian Whyte – the case nobody dare talk about – was “potentially criminal” and a “big, big issue”.
If still interested, you can read about what happened to Whyte in July, days before his July 20 fight against Oscar Rivas, elsewhere. You can also find the UKAD (UK Anti-Doping) letter which exonerated him of any wrongdoing on the day of his most recent fight elsewhere.
Here, meanwhile, Deas goes on to explain why Wilder, a heavyweight who has never failed a performance-enhancing drug test, would be cautious about the prospect of travelling to Whyte’s home country for a fight against Joshua.
“Wherever (the fight) makes the most sense is fine with us — I don’t have any qualms about travelling or anything of that nature,’ Deas told Sportsmail. ‘But I will tell you: I would certainly be concerned given the Dillian Whyte situation. I know that they cleared him of the drug thing but still, when they had a positive result and did not tell the opponent, that’s problematic. I think that’s potentially criminal. That’s a big, big issue for me.
“Also, the fact that Dillian changed gloves without the other side being able to examine the gloves… So there would have to be a lot of things that we would have to talk about relative to the BBBoC and making sure that it was a level playing field because those things were horribly handled, and, in my opinion, set British boxing back quite a few years.
“If you think about boxing in a place like Russia, or back in the day Germany, the first thing people would say is, ‘You can’t get a fair shake there.’ England has never had that reputation, thankfully, but the Dillian Whyte-Oscar Rivas fight did not help, and I think those questions need to be answered.”
Deas said it, not us.
A while ago there was talk of Sergio Martinez, the former world middleweight champion, coming out of retirement to face Julio Cesar Chavez in a rematch of their 2012 encounter. Thankfully, though, it remained just that – talk.
Martinez vs. Chavez II was a fight very few had any interest in seeing and, moreover, the thought of Martinez returning to the ring in his forties didn’t sit well with anyone who respects what the Argentine achieved in his illustrious 17-year professional career.
That said, behind the smile and the carefree exterior, there is a feeling Martinez is intent on coming back and, sure enough, he has today called out another active boxer in the hope of bagging himself a big fight and payday.
The latest man to grab Martinez’s attention is WBO super-middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, for whom Martinez recorded the following call-out video:
As with the mooted rematch against Chavez, let’s hope a Saunders vs. Martinez remains the unfulfilled fantasy of a 44-year-old former fighter eager to scratch an itch best left alone.
