Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is hoping that everything comes together for a planned final eliminator against former unified champion Andy Ruiz.
In 2022, the WBC ordered a four-man tournament to establish a new mandatory challenger to current champion Tyson Fury.
Ruiz won a twelve round unanimous decision over Luis Ortiz in a semi-final, while Wilder demolished Robert Helenius in the first round of his semi-final.
The victory helped Wilder bounce back after suffering consecutive defeats at the hands of Fury.
At the moment, there is no set date or location for Wilder-Ruiz.
"The biggest thing for me and Andy, it's just location, I got a lot of meetings with a lot of different people," Wilder said to ES News. "It's coming, I want to fight Andy, I hope he wants to fight me."
One boxer that Wilder does not expect to face is two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. The two sides have discussed the possibility of a match several times, but no agreement was ever close to being reached.
As BoxingScene.com reported on Tuesday, Joshua - who lost back to back fights to unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk - is coming back on April 1 against Jermaine Franklin.
Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, had recently engaged in conversations with Wilder's co-manager, Shelly Finkel. However, Wilder doubts the contest will come together in the near future.
"Joshua don't wanna fight me, it's plain and clear. I don't know why people keep asking about that," Wilder said.
"Everybody should've known when the $50 million was offered to him ... and he didn't take it. They should have known then that something fishy was about him. Even moving forwards, Joshua don't want to fight."
ADD COMMENT VIEW COMMENTS (42)