{"id":30119,"date":"2025-12-01T15:08:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/oleksandr-usyk-sets-sights-on-deontay-wilder-for-next-heavyweight-showdown\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T15:08:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:08:20","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-sets-sights-on-deontay-wilder-for-next-heavyweight-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/oleksandr-usyk-sets-sights-on-deontay-wilder-for-next-heavyweight-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk Sets Sights on Deontay Wilder for Next Heavyweight Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unified heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk has identified Deontay Wilder as his preferred opponent for his next bout, calling the American his &#8220;top choice.&#8221; Usyk, who made history by defeating Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in July to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion, later gave up the WBO title, allowing Fabio Wardley to claim that belt outright.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Boxing King Media, Usyk said, &#8220;I talked to the team and said he&#8217;s my first choice.&#8221; He expressed interest in facing Wilder due to the American&#8217;s reputation as a powerful puncher and his status as a former WBC world champion. &#8220;I want to fight Deontay Wilder. I think it would be an interesting matchup,&#8221; Usyk noted, adding that Wilder is &#8220;a world champion guy, very famous, strong, and one of the great heavyweights of the past decade.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wilder&#8217;s recent career has been challenging, following his trilogy fights with Tyson Fury, as he endured consecutive stoppage defeats to Joseph Parker and Ji-Ray Zhang. However, he recently made a comeback by stopping Tyrrell Anthony Herndon in seven rounds. Despite Wilder&#8217;s recent struggles, Usyk feels a fight with him would still be compelling.<\/p>\n<p>Fan Take: This potential matchup is exciting for fight fans because it pits Usyk\u2019s technical brilliance against Wilder\u2019s raw power, offering a classic clash of styles. It could also reignite interest in the heavyweight division and provide a defining moment for both fighters&#8217; legacies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unified heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk has identified Deontay Wilder as his preferred opponent for his next bout, calling the American his &#8220;top choice.&#8221; Usyk, who made history by defeating Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in July to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion, later gave up the WBO title, allowing Fabio Wardley to claim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2443],"tags":[2444],"class_list":{"0":"post-30119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fighting","8":"tag-fighting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}