WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has confirmed that he is to return to the ring on September 26th against an as yet TBA opponent and in a still undetermined location, although the bout will be screened in the US on NBC Sports Network.
Wilder faced yet more criticism last month against Eric Molina, making extremely hard work of defeating the part-timer in his home state of Alabama, and already fears are high that he will not be facing a serious and credible threat to his championship this time out either.
Big hitting Russian Alexander Povetkin is the mandatory challenger to Wilder’s title (due January), although his team have already confirmed that fight is not on their radar for the fall/Autumn, which means Deontay will probably once again be facing a name serious fans of the sport are likely to turn their noses up at.
Australian heavyweight contender Lucas Browne has recently been taunting Wilder over social media, although the American has already dismissed Browne’s chances of facing him at ANY point in the future unless the fight is ordered.
The recent front runner to land the shot was former 2x world title challenger Chris Arreola, although he looked awful in battling to a draw against the limited Fred Kassi recently, and has clearly seen better days. In some people’s eyes, this may make him MORE likely to get the shot at the oft-criticised champion however!
Another name publicly linked to Wilder is Poland’s Andrzej Wawryzk (30-1) who is unranked by the WBC and is rated #56 on Boxrec.
Wilder will be in New York this weekend doing media ahead of Saturday’s PBC Danny Garcia v Paulie Malignaggi fight, and his co-manager Jay Deas has confirmed he will then return to Tuscaloosa and enter a full training camp for the September fight on August 4th.
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