Deontay Wilder has been called out for supposedly swerving one of his heavyweight counterparts, before a potential clash with Oleksandr Usyk even entered the equation.
The former WBC world champion was highlighted earlier this month by Usyk, the bona fide heavyweight king, as a possible opponent for his next outing.
Having vacated his WBO strap, the Ukrainian doubled down on his lack of interest in fighting Fabio Wardley, the newly-crowned world champion, and instead expressed his desire to face Wilder.
In response, ‘The Bronze Bomber’, who has not fought since his seventh-round stoppage victory over Tyrrell Herndon in June, was only too happy to verbally accept Usyk’s challenge.
Should the pair collide in 2026, it would likely be for the WBC, IBF and WBA titles that Usyk unified following his fifth-round finish over Daniel Dubois this past July.
But still, many remain doubtful over the world-class credentials of Wilder, whose notorious power was nowhere to be seen in recent defeats to Zhilei Zhang and Joseph Parker.
Not only that, but the 40-year-old has been accused of avoiding a fight against Derek Chisora, who was angling to stage his 50th professional outing in Manchester this month.
The 41-year-old veteran comes off a trio of points wins over Otto Wallin, Joe Joyce and Gerald Washington, which followed his stoppage defeat to Tyson Fury in 2022.
As for a potential showdown with Wilder, it seems that Chisora, who was also linked with former foe Dillian Whyte, has not forgotten the events that supposedly led to a collapse of their initial agreement.
After facing off with the American in a rather playful exchange, Chisora revealed to FightHype that they had a deal in place to fight in December.
“Deontay’s a b****. I gave him a contract before and he f***ing ducked out.
“He was supposed to be fight number 50 in Manchester. We had a deal in place, everything was done, but he pulled out.”
Chisora’s next move is currently unknown, having also been linked to a fight with new WBO champion Wardley.
