On Saturday, May 18, in a fight televised live on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs), the undefeated ?Bronze Bomber? from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will defend his title against Dominic Breazeale (20-1, 18 KOs), the WBC mandatory from Glendale, California.
Wilder recently met with the press via international teleconference call to discuss this weekend?s fight.
?I?d like to welcome Breazeale to the elite level,? Wilder said. ?He?s never been in this level before. He thought he did with Joshua, but Deontay Wilder is a whole different beast. I come with a whole different mindset. And we already know that I come with the right hand from hell.?
Wilder has many attributes, but modesty isn?t among them.
?I?m athletic. I?m agile. I?m mobile. I?m hostile,? Wilder said. ?I?ve got the heart of a lion. I am a king.?
Wilder is also the king of conversation. He talks and talks and some of what his says is worth hearing. But when he?s boasting about the gym in his home, for example, my mind wanders.
?I?m the realest champion in the business and that?s where I am at this point,? he said. ?I?m coming to bring the pain. If you don?t understand that, you?ll see. My actions speak louder than my words.
?This May 18, it will be my time. It?s punishment time. It?s judgment time. And I am the judge.?
Here comes the judge.
?People are simple-minded,? Wilder said. ?My mindset is different. My mindset is so big that a spaceship can fit in it.?
On and on and on he goes, where he stops nobody knows. A defeat might humble the man, but a future beating is not a given.
?I don?t want no excuses. I?m the only fighter that can come in with damaged arms and body mashed and still knock you out because I am blessed. My grandma said I was anointed by God. And she was so right.?
Wilder and his team are tight. They taught him what he knows about boxing, in and out of the ring, including who in the sport pulls the strings.
Wilder got it in record time.
?If anybody?s going to take my career, it?s going to be myself. When you get to a certain point and you know you?re the talent and they?re coming to see your talent and if you have the opportunity, why not take a chance on yourself? Why not bet on yourself??
There?s no betting against Wilder. When he?s not flattening 95 percent of the men he has faced, he?s been the beneficiary of a system that yearned for an American heavyweight champion forever. Wilder may have gotten by with a nod and a wink and a little help from his friends, but his fists deserve most the credit.
?I ask people just to be patient,? Wilder said. ?And with patience comes time. And you?ve got to be able to even both out, patience and time, because they all work together.
?You?re going to get the main fight that you guys want to see. The great thing about it is that we?re all still in discussion. I can understand if it was a closed door and we?re not having no discussion with nobody. Then it would be something that really would be a laid out or drawn out thing.
?But everyone is still in discussion and talking and it?s just going to take a little time but I just tell people, the fans of boxing, people that?s coming in boxing, everyone just to have patience. The big fights are going to happen.?
