WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker. Photo / William Booth / www.photosport.co.nz
American Deontay Wilder, the WBC heavyweight world champion, is at it again, urging his Kiwi WBO world champion counterpart Joseph Parker to fight him in order to take on Anthony Joshua in what he called a "mega" unification bout.
Wilder, who was ringside at Wembley Stadium when Joshua knocked out
Wladimir Klitschko to retain his IBF title and add the WBA "super" and IBO belts to his collection, has attempted to ramp up the pressure on Parker, who fights Razvan Cojanu in the first defence of his WBO belt in Manukau on Saturday, saying: "hurry up & knock your sparring partner out Saturday & let's give the world the other half of the belts..."
The 31-year-old Wilder, who goes by the nickname the "Bronze Bomber", earlier tried to goad Joshua by posting on social media the closing stages of his last fight against Gerald Washington in Alabama in March, saying "this is how you finish a fight".
But his actions backfired to a certain extent. Wilder had Washington seriously hurt in the fifth round due to the power of his right hand, but then lost all of his limited technique when throwing a combination of wild and inaccurate punches, enough of which hit Washington for the referee to call the fight off.
Not surprisingly, his bragging of his unorthodox finish received comment from Joshua's supporters, one of whom wrote: "Throwing wild windmills like a girl outside of a nightclub who has just had her handbag snatched?".
