Heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder looms as the obvious opponent for Anthony Joshua should Joshua unify three belts against Joseph Parker on Saturday (Showtime, 5 p.m. ET) at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
However, Wilder, who had been hired by host broadcaster Sky Sports to work as a pundit on the pay-per-view telecast in the United Kingdom, elected to not make the trip overseas. Instead, he spent part of this week in New York making media appearances, one of which came on The Breakfast Club morning show on Power 105.1 FM.
"I want a body on my record. I want one. I want one, I really do. That's the 'Bronze Bomber,' he wants one. I always tell people, when I'm in the ring, like I'm the 'Bronze Bomber.' Everything about me changes. I don't get nervous, I don't get scared, I don't get butterflies, I don't have no feelings towards the man I'm gonna fight."
Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) is one of the most destructive punchers in boxing and reiterated comments he has made before when asked about his punching power.
"I want a body on my record. I want one. I want one, I really do," Wilder said. "That's the 'Bronze Bomber,' he wants one. I always tell people, when I'm in the ring, like I'm the 'Bronze Bomber.' Everything about me changes. I don't get nervous, I don't get scared, I don't get butterflies, I don't have no feelings towards the man I'm gonna fight.
"I come here for one thing, and that's to knock you out and go back home. The power that I have, man; it's easy to be able to do so."
"I come here for one thing, and that's to knock you out and go back home. The power that I have, man; it's easy to be able to do so."
Wilder recalled what many view as his most violent knockout, a devastating, ninth-round obliteration of Artur Szpilka in January 2016 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It was such a crushing knockout, Szpilka was out cold, and some feared for his life.
"I thought I had one [body] one time, like I said, with Szpilka, because he wasn't breathing when he hit the canvas," Wilder said. "Somebody's gotta go. I want that on my record, because when I'm in that state on mind, like I ain't myself."
Wilder was asked by the hosts about getting into a street fight.
"My power is so crazy that I don't even know the [strength] of it," he said. "I can only imagine me getting into a fight in the street. It'd be crazy. If I'm putting on 10-ounce gloves and hitting guys like I hit Szpilka, when I came here in Brooklyn and fought him, he was dead three to five seconds. Just imagine. That's what I don't condone -- violence outside the ring. I don't wanna see it."
But Wilder said he would fight in the street if it was a matter of protecting himself.
"[My hand] is registered. It's just like having a pistol for me," he said. "If I'm at harm, or harm come at me and threaten me, I have the right to defend myself."
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