Deontay Wilder says he is willing to sacrifice immediate rewards in order to make a potential heavyweight unification fight against Anthony Joshua.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has sent a contract to Wilder’s team with terms for a huge unification fight, but plans to stage the bout at Wembley in September appear unlikely with a deal yet to be agreed.
An initial date of September 15 has now been taken by the Saul Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin rematch and Hearn has warned that AJ will not disrupt his training regime for a fight of such magnitude.
But Wilder has questioned Joshua’s willingness to face him in his next fight, with talks continuing between both camps.
“I’m a true champion. If it takes me sacrificing a small reward for a greater reward in the future – then let’s do it. I did the same thing with Luis Ortiz,” he told Behind The Gloves.
“I came out on top. That’s the best thing I could have done in my career. The wave is crazy now for me.
“It’s going to be the same thing with this Joshua. He doesn’t know that.
“We are both building our legacy, the story is going to be told. The more they run, the more they look terrified of me, the more they keep dodging me – this is going to be written in the books.
“Every opportunity that I have had was always small. I always had to make an opportunity inside of the opportunity, just like I am doing now.”
