{"id":17886,"date":"2025-09-02T08:39:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T08:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=17886"},"modified":"2025-09-02T08:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T08:39:32","slug":"deontay-wilder-tells-francis-ngannou-to-step-into-the-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/deontay-wilder-tells-francis-ngannou-to-step-into-the-ring\/","title":{"rendered":"Deontay Wilder tells Francis Ngannou to \u2018step into the ring\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">It\u2019s uncertain what the next professional step is for former heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder, but if his latest public statement is to be believed, he wants it to be forward \u2013 and into a fight with another famously heavy hitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">On Saturday, Wilder, 44-4-1 (43 KOs), responded to a recent callout from former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou by implying that he is up for the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">\u201cRespect, but I\u2019m ten toes down No fear, no fold, no fake.. Always ready, always solid. Step in the ring and you\u2019ll see what that means,\u201d Wilder posted to his Instagram account, tagging Ngannou in that age-old gauntlet-throwing boxing custom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The message was presumably in response to an Instagram post Ngannou had posted last week, which included a brief video snippet of him hitting the mitts with a trainer and a short message in which Wilder was tagged: \u201cIt\u2019s time to finally settle the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Ngannou had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingscene.com\/articles\/francis-ngannou-expects-deontay-wilder-talks-to-begin-soon\">already publicly stated his interest in a Wilder fight<\/a>, though it wasn\u2019t until this weekend that Wilder spoke about the subject. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FoQ9b_-lenk\">an interview with YouTuber Brian Mazique<\/a> published early Saturday morning, Wilder said of the prospect of facing Ngannou, \u201cI think it\u2019s a helluva fight. \u2026 Let\u2019s make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Then, later Saturday afternoon, came Wilder\u2019s Instagram post<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">All of this comes after indications from Wilder representative Shelly Finkel, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DanRafael1\/status\/1939001881742672009\">per a conversation with boxing reporter Dan Rafael in June<\/a>, that Wilder would next fight in South Korea if the money were \u201creal,\u201d before setting his sights on a 2026 blockbuster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">When BoxingScene reached out to Finkel on Saturday evening to ask about what comes next for \u201cThe Bronze Bomber,\u201d Finkel replied that he wasn\u2019t ready to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Wilder, 39, held a heavyweight title from 2015 to 2020 and is the only American to possess a belt in the division since 2007. After starting his career with 39 consecutive knockout wins, Wilder saw his profile raised to new heights in his epic clashes with former undisputed champ Tyson Fury (in which he went 0-2-1). He spent a year out of the ring after he was stopped by Zhilei Zhang in June 2024 \u2013 his second defeat in a row and fourth in five fights \u2013 before returning from a year layoff to stop Tyrrell Anthony Herndon last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Ngannou, a 38-year-old from Cameroon, is 0-2 in the ring, having lost a surprisingly close split decision to Fury in 2023 and having been stopped by Joshua in March 2024.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">At this stage, Wilder, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, appears to be entertaining only the possibility of big-money fights. In addition to matchups with Ngannou and former two-time unified heavyweight champ Joshua, Wilder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/deontay-wilder-nearing-40-says-hes-down-fight-jake-paul-he-has-10-years-left-career\">confirmed interest in a Jake Paul fight<\/a> \u2013 though admitted to Fox News Digital that \u201cit\u2019s just rumors\u201d for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s uncertain what the next professional step is for former heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder, but if his latest public statement is to be believed, he wants it to be forward \u2013 and into a fight with another famously heavy hitter. On Saturday, Wilder, 44-4-1 (43 KOs), responded to a recent callout from former UFC heavyweight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,4,5,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-featured","category-international","category-naija-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Deontay.png?fit=941%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17888,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17886\/revisions\/17888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}