“We’ve Already Lost That Wilder.” Sunny Edwards on Usyk’s Desire to Fight Deontay

Former world champion Sunny Edwards shared his thoughts on a potential clash between WBA, WBC, IBF and IBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and ex-champion Deontay Wilder.

“If we’re talking name value and commercial appeal, Wilder is still a massive name. He had a great run as a heavyweight world champion. At one point, even when he was smaller in size and maybe technically worse than almost everyone he got in the ring with, he was still knocking them out cold.

But I don’t know — it feels like we’ve already lost that Wilder. If you look at some of his recent performances, he doesn’t have the same ferocity and destructive power he used to. And without that, it looks like he has no chance against Usyk at all.

Wilder’s only chance is to land one huge right hand and end the fight instantly. Other than that, in what universe does Wilder outbox Usyk? To me, that sounds completely unrealistic.

Yes, Wilder is a big name, especially in America. But Usyk is the main man right now. He can genuinely fight whoever he wants. And you can’t say he’s been avoiding tough fights — it’s been the opposite. He keeps taking on the best opponents in the biggest fights. And that started back at cruiserweight and carried over into heavyweight.

He jumped straight into the elite and barely took any time to build up. Yes, he hasn’t been in the ring for a while. If he fights Wilder, I won’t have any complaints. But I’d be very surprised if it ends up as anything other than a one-sided affair,” Edwards said.