I’ve spent a lot of time with Derek over the years. We did plenty of sparring very early on in my career. Since then, I see him around all the time because Derek is absolutely everywhere – at every show and every event.
He has always been congratulatory of me, almost proud of me in a sense. I remember when I won my British title, he was one of the first people to FaceTime me the next morning to say well done.
Derek was also one of the only people, aside from my own team, who backed me going into both the Joseph Parker and Daniel Dubois fights. He’s always been on my side, so I’ve got a lot of love and respect for him.
When I first heard about him taking on Wilder – I have to be honest, it was quite a surprise.
It seemed like both guys had bigger fish to fry – there was talk of Derek getting a world-title shot against me, and Wilder was being lined up by Oleksandr Usyk.
Pulling away from those possibilities to fight each other was random, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
This has that intriguing dynamic of two guys with 50 fights each. For me, it’s really a question of who’s still got what in the tank.
The momentum is with Derek. He’s been in with more lively opponents, proving himself better. He’s still got the energy, the durability and the power to deal with opponents and give them problems.
