"My season is now. This is my due season. Everybody has their season. It don't come when you want it, but it's always on time and my season is now. It is my time. I'm walking in my own destiny and the only person that can stop me or detour me from my destiny is myself...Whoever wins between Arreola and Stiverne will have an immediate title defense against me, so that means that they cannot sit on this belt. They will have to fight me this year. I heard talks about Arreola going after Klitschko next. Nope! That ain't gonna happen. You gotta come through me, baby. I don't even think he wants to fight me, to be real. A lot of these guys say what they want on social media because that is what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to talk and have confidence in yourself. I expect that, but a lot of fighters are actors," stated undefeated heavyweight knockout artist Deontay Wilder, who talked about his recent knockout victory over Malik Scott, his future plans, and much more. Check it out!
MR: You started boxing at a later age, you've only been a pro for 4 years, and you have 31 fights and 31 knockouts. It seems that it took a little time to get you the tougher, more credible fights. Talk to me about your development.
DW: We started out slow, but we had a plan for my career and we didn't care about what people would say about my career or how slow I would come up. Me coming out of the Olympics winning a medal, people thought off that, that I should have been fighting the top people and stuff like that, but the thing is, I could have fought King Kong and beat him, then fought Godzilla and beat him and people would still have something to say about my development and the pace that we've moved. It's been a great career for me and I am here. I feel like everybody can't have a fast pace in their career; that is not made for everybody. You can't...take for example Mike Tyson or Floyd Mayweather, young champions at what they've done in their career; everybody is not built for that. Everybody is not going to be able to go down that same path. That was their paths, their destiny to walk in, to be champions that early. My season is now. This is my due season. Everybody has their season. It don't come when you want it, but it's always on time and my season is now. It is my time. I'm walking in my own destiny and the only person that can stop me or detour me from my destiny is myself. What God has for me is for me.
MR: How in the world are you from Tuscaloosa, Alabama and not a football player or a basketball player? Why boxing?
DW: Man, I know, right! It is crazy because, especially Tuscaloosa, that is what the university is and built around is football and basketball, especially football. When I was growing up, that was my whole state of being was to be an athlete, but in football and basketball because we had the tradition built around us. So much of the hype was football. We got more national championship trophies than anybody in the nation. So it was easy to say you wanted to play for Alabama, but for me, getting into boxing is all credited to my daughter being born. She was born with spina bifida. She detoured all those plans. She was the reason why I got into the gym, the reason I quit college, and everything else was all to support her. The saying is, "If you do right, right will follow." I did the right thing; I made the right decision. God is blessing me beyond what I ever believed. She is one of the happiest little girls and one of the luckiest little girls around. She is very independent. A lot of odds were against her, but she overcame it and she is doing everything that she wants to do and she is living a little girl's dream. She is blessed. I am blessed. Boxing, you know, who would have ever thought this old boy out of Alabama would be boxing? God is good.
MR: Not too long ago, there was a YouTube video circulating on social media of you being KO'd in the amateurs in Russia. Many people were saying that it was evidence that you have a weak chin and that you probably can't take a punch. Would you like to address that video?
DW: First off, I laugh it off. I love all my haters. They try to dig up so much on me. They try to get whatever they can. Before anything, before they try to dig up anything and before they try to discredit me, they should realize what I've done in my career. Anything they pull up and put out, it is credibility to me. That video, for one, was in the amateurs, and what do the amateurs got to do with what I'm doing now? Nothing! That was a pointless video to put up and talk about "no chin." What people don't know is that I was super sick. It was below 13 degrees there, we were in Russia, and I was super sick. I have a warrior heart. I have the mentality that no matter how I'm feeling, I want to fight. I wasn't gonna give up; I wasn't gonna sit back. I wanted to fight. That particular time, I was sick. I even collapsed on the plane after everything was over with because I was still sick. My coach didn't want me to fight at all. He told me not to do it, but I told him that I wanted to fight. I didn't care how sick I was. I didn't care how weak I was. My body was super weak, but I wanted to fight anyway just to get the experience. That was just about my 15th bout going in. I wanted to get the experience in the fight no matter the outcome. It ended up with me being so weak that I couldn't fight no more. My coach stopped the fight. But the good thing about this is that out of all of this, I went on to win the whole thing. I got the belt to prove it. So even when you try to discourage me, that is when I say that it is credibility to me because I still went on to win the whole thing. I gained a lot of fans over that. They can post what they want. They left that part out though. People try to discredit you, but hey, bring it on. If anybody wants to post anything, bring it on. I will gladly tell you about it. I'd like to tell them, "Thank you for that! On to the next!"
MR: You just recently knocked out Malik Scott. You are known for your devastating right hand, but the punch you hit him with was your left hook. That left hook put a 230-pound grown man down and it was a wrap. Were you surprised that you floored him so quick?
DW: First of all, I'd like to state that Malik is an awesome fighter. He is a great boxer. He knows what he is doing in the ring and he has been doing it for a long time. Nobody can ever take that away from him. He's one of the most technical fighters out there. I feel that he can beat anybody in the world, but it just depends on what fighter comes into the ring that night. Everybody has a good night; everybody has a bad night. I definitely hit him on the temple, which anyone who knows anything about the human body knows that the temple is one of the softest spots, and if you do get hit there correctly, it can knock your equilibrium off. That is what I did to Malik. I hit him on the temple and knocked his equilibrium off. If you go back and look at Tyson vs. Trevor Berbick, you will see the same result; a temple shot. Mike did not hit that man hard at all. It may not seem hard because it is on camera, but you cannot measure the mass of how a punch feels just by how it looks. Just because it looks like it didn't hurt doesn't mean that it didn't hurt! I tell people all the time, "Do me a favor. Sign a waiver and I'll be glad to hit you the same way that I hit him and we'll see then!" Looks are deceiving. Why in any God's sense would he dive knowing the rewards that lied at hand? Whoever wins is going to fight for a world title. Not only a word title, but the WBC title; a traditional belt that has been around for years that every great heavyweight has had...Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis. Why wouldn't he want it to be his name on there too? There ain't enough money in the world to pay someone off to give a fight knowing that if they win the belt, they double their money. These people are crazy. It lets you know the knowledge of people in boxing.
MR: Arreloa-Stiverne is set for May 10th at USC. Will you be there ringside? Would you like to face the winner of that fight?
DW: You know I gotta crash the party. Ain't no party without Deontay Wilder. I got to crash that party! I gotta put pressure on somebody's ass that's gonna win and we will see who wants to win. But either one of those guys, it doesn't matter to me. Their styles are both tailored made for mine. It is not gonna matter. Both of them have had my name in their mouths before. Both of them have talked, which is good. I like that. I need that. That is advertising for me and to get me out there, that's great, but when it is time to fight, we will see who was all talk and we will see who is real. I don't play boxing. This is not something that I just do. I take this serious. I take this sport serious. Both styles are made for me. Arreola leans in when he punches. I already have an advantage over him with the long arms and being tall, but I love a pressure fighter. That is something that I love because I got tricks and trades for a pressure fighter, so if he tries to walk in...he said he broke his nose in 5 different places. Well, I'm gonna break it in 20 different places. Believe that. The thing with Stiverne is, being a smaller guy, he's a counter puncher. He don't pressure nobody. That is every big man's dream. If he ever fought a tall guy with athletics and skills like me, he has no chance. They say every fighter has a puncher's chance. He has no chance. It is gonna be great. The heavyweight division is back and I'm just glad to be a part of it, to be a part of the movement. I just want to bring the best fights to the heavyweight division and right now, we got the best fights going on.
MR: So is it safe to assume this is the plan, you get winner of Arreola vs Stiverne?
DW: It is safe to say that. Whoever wins between Arreola and Stiverne will have an immediate title defense against me, so that means that they cannot sit on this belt. They will have to fight me this year. I heard talks about Arreola going after Klitschko next. Nope! That ain't gonna happen. You gotta come through me, baby. I don't even think he wants to fight me, to be real. A lot of these guys say what they want on social media because that is what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to talk and have confidence in yourself. I expect that, but a lot of fighters are actors. The only time I want to take up acting is after my career. When it comes to my career, ain't no acting about this. We will see what happens. And after that, they'll order my first title defense because I will win. I'm speaking it into existence that I will have to fight the winner of Perez-Jennings. So yes, it is definitely safe to say whoever wins will fight me and we will really see who wants to win.
Follow Michelle "Raging Babe" Rosado on Twitter at @M_RagingBabe