DEONTAY WILDER has stepped up his campaign to get Andy Ruiz Jr in the ring with him.
At the weekend his trainer Malik Scott used Instagram to indicate that an offer had been sent to the Californian.
Wilder posted from the same platform using his own account on Monday with a similar but longer message and in the form of a video.
“Let’s get this fight on,” said the 37-year-old.
“We offer you a helluva a lot of money. One thing I don’t want is others to dictate your career at this moment in time. It’s only a short period of time that you have. You gotta man up to your responsibilities because if you allow others to dictate your life at this point in time, you’re gonna end up with nothing, zero. Broke my man, okay!”
Both heavyweights are in need of a big fight and activity. Their rivals such as Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua have dates pencilled in for July and August. The top names are looking to squeeze one fight in before a proposed end of year heavyweight super-card in Saudi Arabia. Right now, Wilder looks set to face Joshua in December with hope that Usyk and Tyson Fury will complete a stunning double-header. All of that could go up in smoke if the quartet don’t defeat their next opponents.
Wilder and Ruiz is already marked down as a final eliminator by the WBC but President Mauricio Sulaiman said last week it was still in the “administrative process”.
In Wilder’s address to Ruiz he expressed his impatience at waiting for the deal to be finalised.
“I don’t have time to wait on you with this situation. We offered you a lot of money. I think you should take it. You only have a limited amount of time left to make as much money as you can. Don’t allow others to interfere with this. You make the decision. It wouldn’t be fair to you or your kids that you miss out on zero because you allow others to interfere with your career at this moment in time. Think about it, bro.
“Let’s get this thing done. Get it signed, sealed and delivered. I’m sick and tired of sitting round. Enough is enough. Ball’s in your court. I’ll see you soon.”
Ruiz gave a far shorter response to Wilder. Replying in the comments section to the video the 33-year-old simply wrote, “Let’s goo”.
