Deontay Wilder might get a shot at a heavyweight title in his comeback to boxing.
The former WBC heavyweight champion's career has taken a few hits lately. Wilder lost his belt to Tyson Fury in 2020 after being unbeaten in his first 43 fights. He defended that title 10 times and beat some tough guys like Luis Ortiz, Bermane Stiverne, and Chris Arreola.
Things got rough for Wilder after losing to Fury. He lost to him again in October 2021. Then he knocked out Robert Helenius in October 2022, but lost his next two fights to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
Now, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has offered Wilder a chance to fight for the WBC interim heavyweight championship. Sulaiman told Sky Sports they don't want to force a mandatory challenger on Oleksandr Usyk right now.
"The winner of Zhang-Kabayel is of the highest level. But also we are supporting [undisputed] again because how can you see Usyk lose a belt? That was horrible. Now they might fight again for undisputed with [Daniel] Dubois. We will see. We're not going to push anything."
Sulaiman added:
"We will [support an undisputed heavyweight title fight] and we will assess what is happening, what is the best scenario."
Agit Kabayel might be Wilder's opponent if he takes this fight. Kabayel's got a perfect record of 26 wins with 18 knockouts. He's beaten some tough guys like Zhilei Zhang, Frank Sanchez, and Arslanbek Makhmudov. He's become a real threat in the heavyweight division.
Sulaiman mentioned some other big names that could be in the mix:
"[Kabayel] has the WBC interim championship that [he] can defend. There's other big fights like Joshua, Wilder or eventually even Fury. So many other possible great fights."
We don't know for sure if Wilder will come back to boxing. Tyson Fury has said what he thinks about his old rival returning to the ring.
It's up to Wilder now. Will he take this chance to fight for a title again? We'll have to wait and see what he decides.
