WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has some advice for Anthony Joshua: Don't take the rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. — at least, not yet.
Ruiz scored a massive upset over previously unbeaten Joshua, knocking him down four times in a seventh-round TKO victory on June 1 in Madison Square Garden. It was a disastrous debut in America for Joshua, who recently admitted he wasn't in the proper mental condition heading into the fight that cost him his unified heavyweight title.
The two sides are working to secure a rematch — pegged potentially for December at a to-be-determined location — but Wilder thinks Joshua would be better off facing someone else first.
“Due to the circumstances of how Joshua lost, I wouldn’t take the rematch straight away," Wilder told BoxingScene.com. "He should have a warm-up.
"He lost in a bad fashion and the warm-up would be for the mental side of it — 'Are you still there?'" Wilder said. "You have to overcome your demons."
Joshua seems more than willing to exorcise those demons, and he seems set on doing so against the man who took his titles from him, claiming he wants to "unleash the beast" against Ruiz and anyone else who steps into the ring with him.
Whether Joshua is able to do that remains to be seen. Until then, Wilder will remain a skeptic.
“I would just advise him to follow his heart, go with his intuition, how he feels, don’t try to make others happy because they can’t get into the ring," he said. "They’re not going to fight and they’re definitely not putting their lives on the line. His handlers, they don’t want to see anyone else unify the division, so they’re trying to force him into doing something he’s really not ready for.”