Former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has given his thoughts on the upcoming rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.

In September 2021, Oleksandr Usyk surprised a lot of people by defeating Anthony Joshua - and doing so in impressive fashion. The decision triumph showcased just how crisp Usyk is as a boxer at the elite level as he captured the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Now, eleven months later, they’re set to run it back on August 20 in front of a capacity crowd in Saudi Arabia.

The Rage on the Red Sea is bound to draw the attention of the boxing world and that includes some of the division’s other top stars, including Deontay Wilder.

As the countdown to fight night later this summer continues, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ has taken the time to give his prediction for the bout during a recent FaceTime call that was uploaded to social media.

“I’m going with Usyk again, man. I’m going with Usyk again. A lot of people are, you know what I mean? It’s boxing at the end of the day, and the world will see. I’m picking Usyk.”

Wilder went on to respond to a query regarding his potential return to the boxing ring.

“I may come back, I may not. I’m having a great time outside of the ring, you know what I mean. I make more outside of the ring than in it. So, this is where I am.”

Will Wilder return?

At the age of 36, there’s every chance Deontay Wilder will come back to professional boxing - but in many ways, he has nothing left to prove.

He’s already been a world champion and despite coming up short in his last few outings against Tyson Fury, he still gave it everything he had in pursuit of glory.

There are some undeniably fascinating match-ups out there for him and when you consider the fact that he has 41 knockouts to his name, it really will take just one shot for someone’s lights to go off, even at this later stage of his career.