Fight Club: Wilder calls-out Fury and Joshua

Sport360 staff 06:49 18/07/2016
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  • Deontay Wilder shook off injury to retain his WBC heavyweight world title and then proceeded to call out his fellow belt holders.

    In front of euphoric home fans in Birmingham, Alabama, Wilder remained undefeated in 37 fights, notching his 36th victory inside the distance as bloodied challenger Chris Arreola failed to answer the bell for the ninth round.

    Arreola had absorbed immense punishment when his corner told the referee they wanted to call a halt. He was bleeding from a cut on the bridge of his nose opened in the first round, and his left eye was nearly swollen shut.

    Wilder dropped Arreola in the fourth round, and after the challenger made the count of eight – assuring the referee he was good to go on – Wilder rocked him again at the bell. The win looked all the more impressive when Wilder said in a post-fight interview he had broken his right hand and torn a muscle in his right arm.

    “I wanted to give you guys a knockout, but I broke my hand and I tore a muscle,” said Wilder as a cornerman applied an icepack to his right bicep. “My goal is to unify the division. I’m one of the baddest heavyweights in the business.

    “So whoever’s got those belts, that’s who I want. It don’t matter if I got a broke hand, got a torn mus- cle, I’m going to fight like champions do. Of course I want the Furys, of course I want the Joshuas but the question is, do they want me?”

    Joshua is the current IBF champ but is expected to take a short break after he defended the belt against Dominic Breazeale last month, while Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko are scheduled for a title rematch.

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