Deontay Wilder may not be ranked among the top heavyweights anymore, yet Oleksandr Usyk still visualizes a bout with the ex-champion. Usyk, who holds the WBA, IBF, and WBC titles, recently stated that Wilder is his preferred next competitor.

“I spoke with my team and said he is the first option,” Usyk confessed to Boxing King Media. “I want to fight Deontay Wilder. I think it’s interesting… He is a world champion guy. A very famous and strong guy, one of the great heavyweights of the last 10 years.”

Usyk’s impressive record stands at 24-0, with 15 knockouts. He last faced Daniel Dubois in July, winning via a fifth-round knockout, which crowned him the undisputed heavyweight champion for the second time in his career, after first achieving this with his May 2024 victory over Tyson Fury.

He vacated the IBF title after beating Fury, opting to pursue a rematch instead of defending against an IBF mandatory challenger. Dubois subsequently obtained that title, but Usyk later reclaimed it.

Wilder, whose record is 44-4-1 with 43 KOs, was once perceived as one of boxing’s most dangerous fighters. He captured the WBC title in January 2015 and defended it successfully 10 times before losing to Fury in February 2020 and again shortly after.

After a loss to Joseph Parker followed by a knockout by Zhilei Zhang, Wilder got back to winning ways with a first-round KO against Robert Helenius, before in June knocking out Tyrrell Herndon.

At present, Wilder is ranked No. 13 by the WBC and is unranked in the other three major sanctioning bodies.