Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder sure looked all done in his last fight, or actually in his previous two fights, when he was widely outpointed by Joseph Parker and then crushed in the fifth round by Zhilei Zhang. And plenty of fans, most of them, would like to see the once wickedly powerful “Bronze Bomber” call time and retire from the sport. Though he has not officially announced anything, Wilder perhaps has already made his mind up.
However, Wilder has a possible lifeline should he wish to continue. And as crazy as it may seem, Wilder could walk straight into another world title fight – at bridgerweight. Newly crowned WBC bridgerweight champion Lawrence Okolie has said he would be very interested in defending his belt against Wilder, and now, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has noted that the WBC “would approve” a fight between Okolie, 20-1(15) and Wilder, 43-4-1(42) for the WBC bridger belt.
“I am sure that if Wilder wished to fight vs the Bridgerweight champion, the WBC would approve, but we have not yet received anything from our dear Deontay champ,” Suliaman wrote on social media.
Again, Wilder may have already decided to retire, and if so, any talk of this fight taking place will not come to anything at all. However, we all know how tough it can be for a former champion/star-fighter to accept that his career is over. We’ve seen so many former champions fight on and on. Might Wilder find it oh-so challenging to walk away off the back of a loss?
If Wilder did fight Londoner Okolie, and if the 38-year-old could let his hands go with authority, who knows, maybe Wilder would have a good shot at landing a big shot and winning. But the way Wilder looked against both Parker and Zhang strongly suggests he is clean out of bullets. Should Wilder risk taking another beating/bad loss?
If he did fight at bridgerweight – weight limit 200 to 224 pounds – Wilder would become the biggest name to have fought in the fledging weight class. And if he won, Wilder would become a two-weight world champion. Let’s see if Wilder is interested in fighting with “The Sauce.”
