Deontay Wilder Talks Wanting To Move Down To Cruiserweight

Deontay Wilder mentioned an interesting career path to take after he is done being the world heavyweight champion.

In a video posted on his Instagram, Wilder, who holds the WBC heavyweight title, said that once he is done unifying all four major world heavyweight titles, he would consider moving down in weight to fight for a cruiserweight world title. Wilder is currently one fight away from reaching his goal of unifying the heavyweight division as he is in talks to fight Anthony Joshua, who currently holds the WBA “super,” WBO and IBF titles.

“You know I just been sitting in my car thinking. I been thinking about once I unify the heavyweight division, moving down to the cruiserweight division, taking over that division. I mean, there’s never been a heavyweight champion ever go down in weight.. Just take over the cruiserweight division while maintaining the heavyweight division,” Wilder said.

There had been boxers who have held titles in both the heavyweight and cruiserweight division, such as Evander Holyfield and David Haye, but not a boxer win a major world heavyweight title first then move down to the cruiserweight division to win a title. There were also top heavyweight champions throughout history, including Bob Fitzsimmons and Roy Jones Jr., who have won titles in multiple divisions, but usually steered cleared of the 200-pound division, starting out as light heavyweight champions and jumping all the way to heavyweight.

Wilder is still negotiating a fight with Joshua, but the negotiations could end soon. Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, recently said there is a deadline for Wilder to accept Hearn’s offer to fight Joshua or else Joshua could take a fight against Alexander Povetkin. Povetkin is the mandatory challenger for Joshua’s WBA title, but Hearn’s priority is to make the fight between the two heavyweight champions a reality.