21 February 2023 , 10:47
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Deontay Wilder has slammed "miserable" Chael Sonnen after his criticism of his two-fight call-out to Francis Ngannou.
Boxing star Wilder has recently returned to the heavyweight division where he poleaxed Robert Helenius in the first round of his first fight since losing his trilogy fight to Tyson Fury. However his future is uncertain since declaring he is a free agent, having seemed certain to face stablemate Andy Ruiz Jr in a WBC world title eliminator.
The 'Bronze Bomber' has since issued a call-out of former UFC heavyweight Ngannou, who he has claimed he would be open to doing battle in both the cage and the boxing ring. But former MMA star Sonnen was left unimpressed by the deal and blasted the star as a "coward" on a recent YouTube video.
Sonnen said: "So he said he is going to fight Francis [Ngannou] as long as he fights me in boxing first. That actually happened he is such a coward, there is things you don't have to do it doesn't mean you aren't brave. It can just mean you are smart, a coward will tell you how brave they are and then be the coward and that is what Deontay did."
Wilder has been left bemused by the comments and has even claimed that Sonnen's comments were made purely for financial reasons and attention. He said to 78SPORTSTV : “Who is this guy again? When you're successful, you don't listen to the whispers of miserable people's cries. I don't listen to those things. As I've said, I've been travelling too much. I've been handling business. I have been feeding my family.
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"I haven't been sitting around, worrying about the foolishness of the sounds of foolish people. For me, because I don't make no money off of foolishness, I don't entertain it... That's just another human being a miserable person. That's just what he feels. Why not do boxing? Why not do MMA? I said they always come to boxing, I would love to come to MMA too, so what is the cowardly thing?
Deontay Wilder called out former UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou (Top Rank via Getty Images)Would you like to see Deontay Wilder face Francis Ngannou? Let us know in the comments section below
"Whatever sport goes first, it doesn’t matter. Whatever business goes first, it doesn’t matter. Whether we do MMA first or boxing first. “To be honest I’m letting Francis choose what he wants to do. I made the offer and everything’s going good, I’m hearing maybe he wants to just do boxing."
Ngannou is likely to be made a number of offers given his desire to also take on WBC champion Fury in the ring, while potentially resuming his MMA career. 'The Predator' could also receive a proposal from Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn who is open to putting the Cameroon star up against Anthony Joshua.