TALLADEGA — He may not be an expert on stock car racing, but does drive a fast gator-skin Lamborghini in his spare time.
On Sunday before the drop of the official start of Talladega Superspeedway’s Geico 500, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, affectionately known as “The Bronze Bomber,” will lead the field to the green flag.
“I’m excited more than anything,” Wilder, a native of Tuscaloosa, said before the race. “Like I said before, I can’t stop smiling. I’m like a kid at a candy store. This is a new sport that I’m learning about.”
Wilder told a group of reporters assembled at the track’s media center Sunday morning he foresees the unification of the heavyweight championship.
“We’re almost on the verge of unifying the division, in which those that don’t understand the term of that, it means obtaining all belts that are possible to obtain in a division and I’m right there on the verge of doing it,” he explained. “With that being said, it will take a lot of hard work. It will take a lot of dedication and just the mindset and the focus to be able to compete and the level I’m competing on. Sometimes it takes sacrifices, too. And I take a lot of them.”
Wilder was asked about the possibility of a match with Anthony Joshua, who holds the WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight belts.
“I think this fight will definitely happen,” Wilder said. “When you put $50 million on the table, I think it is hard to say no that, no matter what the terms and conditions are. My team is some of the best guys in the business. My team puts on some great cards.”
“It’ll definitely get made, just matter of time with the magnitude of this fight,” he added. “It takes time, right now, I think the negotiations and different things that are going on, it’s part of the build-up of it. When the fight happens, it’s going to be an epic one. At the end of the fight, we want a champion — one face, one name, and his name is Deontay Wilder.’
Wilder stressed the element of what his accomplishment would mean for his home state.
“Being from Alabama, it’s also a pride and joy to be able to say a guy from Alabama is accomplishing and doing some great things in this sport of boxing.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
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