Deontay Wilder responds to Oleksandr Usyk dropping him from three-fight retirement plan

Deontay Wilder was shocked that Oleksandr Usyk suggested he is now out of the running for a fight before the champion retires.

Usyk was locked in talks to face Wilder after snubbing fight interest from Fabio Wardley earlier in the year and even vacating his title.

But talks failed to materialise into a showdown, with the ‘Bronze Bomber’ now instead facing Derek Chisora on April 4.

The Ukrainian will now instead take on kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven in a lucrative title defence in Egypt in May.

And he named Verhoeven as one of his planned three fights before retiring.

The list also included the winner of Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois’ world title clash, and a trilogy with Tyson Fury, leaving Wilder isolated from contention.

And the American was pretty stunned to have been snubbed, suggesting he may have intimidated the current title holder.

He told Daily Mail Boxing: “Oh nice, no Deontay Wilder in there? He’s changed courses.

“Most time when people meet me and see me, an intimidation factor comes along.

“We will see if it happens, if it doesn’t happen it doesn’t crush my dreams.

“I’m still here whether he’s here or not, no matter who is here I’m not here for any other guy in the division.

“I’m here for what I want to do in my life and what I want to do in this business, not for Usyk.”

Usyk’s snub could come as a blow if he is to realise his dream of returning to world level.

But he will need to pay full attention to dangerous veteran Chisora first, who is out for blood in what could be his final fight.

Why did Wilder vs Usyk collapse?

Ultimately, for Wilder it is an opportunity to try to continue his journey back to winning ways against Chisora.

And it could well be a more realistic option, given he is now 40 and shown new vulnerabilities in recent fights.

Wilder simply suggested negotiations were too slow with Usyk and time is ticking on his career so he made the decision to move on.

He told talkSPORT.com: “Although we were in talks with Usyk, we still didn’t have a date or a place; we were still scrambling around.

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“In boxing, things either go very slow or very fast. There is no in between. And this was very slow.

“I am an older fighter; I can’t sit around like a young fighter. So while we were in negotiations with Usyk, we started negotiations with Chisora.

“So talks were already in an advanced stage before we got talking again, and by the time everything had stalled [with Usyk], we already got the fight [with Chisora] signed.

“And then, when we had it signed with Chisora, that is when Usyk’s people came in and said, ‘Okay, let’s go, we are ready’. But I wasn’t going to do Chisora like that.”