Ahead of the toughest match of his career, Deontay Wilder remains patient and hungry

Deontay Wilder has done everything within his power to reinvigorate the heavyweight division. After winning an Olympic bronze medal in 2008, he’s won all 40 of his professional bouts, 39 of them by knockout.

He has a world title. He’s accessible, colorful, patient and compelling. He’s big and muscular and obsessed with greatness.

He was so desperate for a major fight that when Anthony Joshua declined to fight him, he sought out Tyson Fury. Long before Joshua said no, Wilder was on the phone to Fury, who abandoned boxing after winning the title in 2015 as he dealt with mental health issues that led him to the brink of suicide.

“I knew a long time ago me and him would be big,” Wilder told Yahoo Sports of Fury. “I knew that was a fight that would have to happen. And so I talked to him when he was [sidelined with a plethora of personal issues]. I told him, ‘Me and you, we’re going to set records. We’re going to do this up big.’ He was in a bad place in his life, but I encouraged him. We talked and that was the start of what led to this.”

The “this” that Wilder refers to is the Showtime Pay-Per-View bout between them on Saturday at Staples Center in Los Angeles. It will be for Wilder’s WBC heavyweight belt and Fury’s lineal title. It is, by far, the most significant bout of a career for Wilder that has been filled with victories, knockouts and disappointments.

He turned pro in 2008, at a time when there was a talent drain in the heavyweight division. By the time he rose to prominence — or, better put, by the time his undefeated record started to attract attention — there was a paucity of elite opposition.

And so Wilder fought a collection of overmatched and unheard of opponents, guys like Nicolai Firtha, Jason Gavern, Matthew Green and Kelvin Price. He was scorned by many in the media, even as the late legendary trainer Emanuel Steward predicted greatness for him.

Steward, who died in 2012, trained then-heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, and frequently used Wilder as a sparring partner. Even as Wilder was coming under intense criticism from fans and media for his apparent soft opposition, Steward sung his praises.

He’ll be the best heavyweight there is, Steward said frequently of Wilder.

On Saturday, Wilder will have the opportunity to take a huge step forward in fulfilling Steward’s prediction.

Yet, for all he has done, Wilder hasn’t fully gotten over with the public. There’s been the ongoing disappointment of not getting a fight with Joshua, who holds the IBF, WBA and WBO belts. There was the disappointment of Alexander Povetkin’s positive drug test that canceled their bout just as Wilder was about to board a plane headed to Russia to fight the 2004 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist.

It hasn’t been a simple or easy route to the top, but Wilder has always persevered and, as Billy Joel sang, kept the faith.

“I’ve always known he’s had the hammer of Thor,” said promoter Lou DiBella, who has inexplicably not been used much in the promotion of the bout. “I’ve always known that. He has that one punch that can change everything. There have been a number of occasions where I’ve thought to myself that he could be better than everyone thinks he can be. Honestly, and no bulls–t, this guy can be a great, great heavyweight.

“ … One of the things I love about him is that he hasn’t changed as a person since I first met him when he was still an amateur. He is a grown-ass man and he’s shown the ability to handle adversity and to believe in himself and believe in his destiny and stay on track through all sorts of negativity. He’s the real thing.”

Fury will be his best opportunity to prove that. He was outboxed for much of his March bout with Luis Ortiz, before rallying to score a title-saving 10th-round knockout. The narrative that surrounded that bout, though, wasn’t about his ability to score a late knockout against the iron-chinned Ortiz, but rather about how badly he was being outboxed prior to the knockout.

In 1992, when Riddick Bowe, a silver medalist in the 1988 Olympics, challenged Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight title, he had to deal with questions about his heart and his willingness to dig deep when times got rough.

Bowe entered that fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas with a 31-0 record and 27 knockouts, but the headline previewing the Nov. 13, 1992, bout in The New York Times read, “Bowe’s Task Is to Prove His Heart Is in Ring.” Prove it, he did, in one of the greatest heavyweight title fights in history.

So it’s nothing new that Wilder is hearing questions about his ability or his level of opposition or even his ability to box. And Fury, who ended Klitschko’s decade-long reign as champion in 2015 with a dominant, one-sided decision victory, repeatedly questioned whether Wilder has the boxing skill to keep up with him during their press tour.

Wilder, however, has heard it all before. He took the title from Bermane Stiverne in 2015, only to have Stiverne claim it was because he was suffering from rhabdomyolysis and shouldn’t have been fighting. When they met in a rematch last year, Stiverne spoke big until the bell rang.

At that point, Wilder overwhelmed him and knocked him out in one round. Stiverne hasn’t been heard from since.

Wilder’s had to endure a lot to get to where he is at, but this is a guy who once was a waiter at Red Lobster and who didn’t begin to box until his daughter was born with spina bifida and he decided he needed to make a lot of money in a hurry to be able to care for her properly.

He understands the value of patience.

“I believe in myself and I knew that no matter what people might say, it was up to me what would ultimately happen,” Wilder said. “I was hoping for a long time I would be fighting that other guy [Joshua], but I was never focused on just one guy. I was focused on proving I am the best, and you have to beat everyone to prove that. And that’s what I am going to do.

“Fury, give him credit: He said yes, when the other guy did not. He stepped up. He’s got the [lineal] title and this is the best fight I could do. That’s what I’m always going to go after because I believe I am the best and there’s only one way to prove it.”

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