by David P. Greisman

Little drives the ire of boxing fans like one fighter saying that he won’t fight another. They don’t want reasons that come off like excuses. They don’t want business decisions that sound more like blatant ducking. They just want good fights, and they want good fighters to face each other.

So normally a statement like the one Deontay Wilder made immediately after his win over Johann Duhaupas this past Saturday would be widely derided. He had said before how he wanted to face Wladimir Klitschko, the true heavyweight champion of the world.

He still wants to face Klitschko — but not yet.

“Hopefully we can do it by the end of next year sometime,” Wilder said in his post-fight interview. “We’ve got to get these mandatories out of the way as well, too. People have to stay patient. The key is to stay patient. This is a process and it is also a business. That fight is surely coming around as long as I keep winning, which I will, and as long as he keep winning. That should come around real soon and soon we’ll have an undisputed world heavyweight champion, which is me, baby.”

Wilder owes a defense of his World Boxing Council belt against mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin. Klitschko has three world titles. His mandatory challenger from the World Boxing Organization is Tyson Fury. Klitschko-Fury was originally scheduled to take place on Oct. 24 but has since been postponed to a date to be determined thanks to an injury Klitschko suffered in training camp. He may end up owing shots to mandatory challengers for his other belts next year as well.

Normally a fighter wouldn’t want to wait for a chance to challenge the best in his weight class. The idea of waiting didn’t seem to bother Wilder, though. Rather, it appealed to him.

“I’m the younger guy and the more time that pass by, that’s an advantage for me,” Wilder said. “Each and every fight, I prove a little bit more about what people don’t know about me. Of course I can take a punch. Of course I can box. I can fight on the inside, too.”

Klitschko is 39 years old. He turns 40 in late March. He’s been a pro boxer for nearly two decades and competed in the amateurs before that. He remains in excellent shape and has been dominant in his division for an extended period of time.

The days of Klitschko being seen as vulnerable and frightened are long gone. He hasn’t lost in more than a decade. He won a world title back in April 2006 and is approaching 10 years with it. He’s made 18 successful defenses of that belt and added two more titles over the years. In the eyes of many, Klitschko’s win over Ruslan Chagaev in 2009 made him the new lineal champion. That status has been defended 11 times since.

But the ravages of time do add up. Even the best-conditioned body can begin to break down. Injuries can take longer to heal or may not heal as well.

Time truly is on Wilder’s side. That may seem to some to be a cowardly perspective — to not want to prove yourself against the best version of your opponent but rather to face him in a lesser state, when any victory would therefore be less meaningful.

But the passage of time isn’t just about what it might mean for the deterioration of Klitschko. It’s also important for the continued development of Wilder.

Wilder has a heavyweight title, but he’s also clearly still a work in progress. That was apparent before he held a title, when his first 32 wins all came by knockout in four rounds or less against a lower level of opposition.

It was apparent even as he boxed wisely to a decision and took the title from Bermane Stiverne. It was definitely apparent as Wilder got rocked before coming back to stop Eric Molina in nine rounds this past June. And it was apparent as Duhaupas marked up Wilder’s face and pressured him around the ring, even as Wilder unleashed barrages of punches and pummeled Duhaupas until the referee stepped in early in the 11th round.

Every fighter is going to get hit. Only the truly defensively stellar, like Floyd Mayweather Jr., can control how little they get caught. The rest must just seek to limit their exposure, to make fewer mistakes on defense while also opening up more opportunities on offense.

Wilder was able to get away with being hit hard by Molina and getting marked up against Duhaupas. He’s going to need to work in camp to make sure that he doesn’t even need to attempt to get away as much with taking shots from the powerful Povetkin. That’s the obstacle he’ll need to conquer before a Klitschko fight can be made.

He long got by on raw athleticism and power. But he’s got a team that includes former amateur great and pro titleholder Mark Breland as one of his trainers. Their job is to refine and then fine-tune Wilder. Wilder’s job is to be open to improvement and then to work hard to incorporate those lessons in the ring.

Should Povetkin be next, he will be the most accomplished and difficult opponent, by far, that Wilder has ever faced. There is plenty of work to be done ahead of time. And that’s just for Povetkin. There also should be plenty of time to do work for Klitschko.

Wilder is wiser to wait. And boxing fans should holster their hate for now. Wilder’s comments about Klitschko getting older are regrettable. He should want to face the best version possible of his opponent.

But we should also want Wilder to be the best version of himself when that time comes.

There’s such a thing as an expiration date. Fans lamented that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fought in 2015 rather than years beforehand when both still were at their peak. Mayweather was still the best when they fought, though, and Pacquiao was still among the best.

It’s a good thing that both Klitschko and Wilder have mandatory defenses to make. We shouldn’t wait for Klitschko-Wilder to be too late. But until Wilder develops a bit more, that fight is still a bit too soon.

The 10 Count

1. Razor Ruddock’s most prominent days were more than two decades ago; he lost to Mike Tyson twice in 1991, Lennox Lewis in 1992 and Tommy Morrison in 1995. Yet he’s returned several times over the years, first from 1998 to 1999, then in 2001, and again this year. He’s now 51 years old and has fought three times in 2015.

The last time came on Sept. 11 on the undercard of Adonis Stevenson vs. Tommy Karpency. And it truly should be the last time. Ruddock lost via third-round knockout.

It can be hard to let go. His team is planning on filing a protest:

“The lead-up to the knock-out was a result of Razor being hit by two consecutive ‘illegal’ punches thrown by Dillon Carman that were not recognized by the referee,” says a statement posted on the Boxing News magazine website. “Rules of boxing state that it is illegal for a boxer to hit an opponent in the back of the head and/or below the belt.”

I went back and watched the fight. Ruddock’s case is incredibly weak. To me, it looked as if the blows that badly hurt him were clearly to the side of the head.

Judge for yourself. The sequence in question begins at about the 11:13 mark:

http://bit.ly/koruddock

2. Can someone please set up a Kickstarter on behalf of heavyweight journeyman Fred Kassi? He keeps getting ripped off on the scorecards.

Kassi got stiffed in July in his fight with Chris Arreola, which ended up as a draw. And he got robbed this past Saturday, when the judges in Alabama somehow had Dominic Breazeale winning a unanimous decision, including John Westeterp and his inconceivable shutout.

At least he’s now gotten whatever paydays came with undercard appearances on a pair of “Premier Boxing Champions” cards. I don’t think we’ll see him back.

3. Let me preface this next section by saying this: A champion is a champion is a champion. I differentiate between champions and titleholders. Titleholders are those who merely hold belts. Champions are the guy who beat the guy who beat the guy, and so on. That, to me, can only be taken away in certain limited circumstances without him losing. Similarly, a new champion to me is only installed when the two true top guys face each other or, in exceptional circumstances, No. 1 against No. 3 three.

With that said, it’s interesting to note that The Ring magazine, which changed its policy for filling vacancies years ago in what I felt was a rush to fill its championship slots, now has a whole bunch of vacancies to fill again. (Full disclosure: I freelance for The Ring.)

Going from top to bottom:

The heavyweight champ is Wladimir Klitschko. The cruiserweight champ, Yoan Pablo Hernandez, just announced his retirement after years in which injuries sidelined him for extended periods of time.

The light heavyweight champ is Adonis Stevenson. As one thread on the Reddit boxing forum noted, Ring’s policy says the champ can be stripped if he hasn’t defended against a Top 5 opponent in any weight class for two years. Stevenson’s last Top 5 opponent was Tavoris Cloud, who was ranked No. 3 in its ratings at the time. His next opponents were Tony Bellew (No. 6 at the time), Andrzej Fonfara (No. 10), Dmitry Sukhotsky (unranked), Sakio Bika (unranked both at 175 and 168), and Tommy Karpency (unranked). He hits two years from the Cloud bout as of today (Sept. 28). It’ll be interesting to see what the magazine’s ratings board does in the near future, if it’ll wait to see who Stevenson’s next opponent is and if it’ll penalize him for Sergey Kovalev pulling out of the purse bid process for a fight earlier this year.

Andre Ward, who is otherwise the lineal champion at 168, was stripped by RING. Miguel Cotto is the champ at 160. Both 154 and 147 are now vacant with Floyd Mayweather’s retirement. Danny Garcia left the championship at 140 behind when he moved up a division.

There are vacancies at 135, 130 and 126. Guillermo Rigondeaux is the champ at 122, but he too hasn’t faced a Top 5 contender since he became champ by beating Nonito Donaire in April 2013. Since then he’s faced Joseph Agbeko (unranked), Sod Kokietgym (unranked) and Hisashi Amagasa (unranked). There are vacancies at 118 and 115. The flyweight champion at 112 is Roman Gonzalez, and Donnie Nietes is champ at 108. There’s a vacancy at 105.

4. Tyson Fury dressed up as Batman last week at a press conference for his now-postponed fight with Wladimir Klitschko.

Adonis Stevenson goes by the nickname of “Superman.”

But those are two DC Comics heroes. What about Marvel?

Well, Antonio Margarito is supposedly returning. Given the state of his face the last time we saw him, he can be a certain member of the X-Men:

Cyclops.

5. It’s been a while since we’ve had an edition of The 10 Count, which means we’ve got plenty of catching up to do with Boxers Behaving Badly. First, updates on a few cases:

- Former lightweight contender Michael Katsidis is on a good behavior bond for three months — essentially probation — for possession of a pipe used to smoke methamphetamine, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. He’s been fortunate to avoid jail in a couple of other recent cases, one for burglary and another for a second case of possessing a “drug utensil.” The 35-year-old is 31-7 with 24 KOs and last fought in March, taking a decision over Rodynie Rafol.

- Willbeforce Shihepo — whose 22-8 (16 KOs) record includes a decision loss to super middleweight Arthur Abraham in 2013 — has had an assault case against him dropped, according to AllAfrica.com. He was initially arrested back in April. The 32-year-old last fought in late 2014, taking an eight-round decision over Tineyi Maridzo.

- Eamonn Magee, a former 140- and 147-pound fighter, had charges dropped against him after being accused of harassing the father of a man who allegedly killed Magee’s son in late May, according to the Belfast Telegraph. In another update, Magee also recently had his conviction and jail sentence overturned in a case that accused him of assaulting a woman; the woman did not show up for Magee’s appeal. Magee, 44, left the sport in 2007 with a record of 27-6 (18 KOs). He lost a decision to Ricky Hatton in 2002.

6. And now a Boxers Behaving Badly roundup:

- Fred Evans — a welterweight who won a silver medal for the United Kingdom at the 2012 Olympics — pleaded guilty earlier this month to punching and hospitalizing a friend in an October 2014 incident at a bar, according to the Gloucester News Service. This is the second recent assault case against Evans; he also had one in February 2014. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October.

- Jesse Barboza — a heavyweight from Massachusetts with a record of 10-1-1 (6 KOs) — was arrested late last month and accused of “choking another man after a bikini contest at a popular local bar,” according to the Cape Cod Times. Because if you’re going to allegedly choke a dude, what better place to do so? The article said Barboza was a volunteer judge for the contest, and the bar’s manager placed blame on the victim, who may have been upset at the results. Barboza last fought in August, knocking out Jesse Oltmanns in a little more than a minute.

- Barry Lineberger — a heavyweight who went 4-9 with 2 KOs between 2001 and 2005 — has been accused of grabbing a woman off the street, taking her back to a boarding house and sexually assaulting her, according to Florida television station WTSP. Lineberger, 50, is a registered sexual offender who was convicted in New York in 2007 of attempted first-degree sexual abuse.

7. We also have some Boxers Behaving Goodly:

- Welterweight contender Amir Khan has continued his charity work by helping to collect supplies for refugees who presently are on the Greek island of Lesbos. “It’s heartbreaking to see images of children losing their lives as their families flee from devastating conflict,” Khan said in a statement. “What’s even more disturbing is knowing that many more lives will be lost unless we provide urgent aid to these refugees who are stranded and in desperate need.”

- Chris Byrd, Andre Dirrell, Anthony Dirrell, and Olympic gold medal winner Claressa Shields boxed in exhibition bouts earlier this month as part of a charity event raising money for the Universal Kidney Foundation, according to The Flint Journal. The foundation helps people with chronic kidney disease and other related illnesses in part of Michigan.

- Antonio Tarver’s community service continues. In August, he and his namesake son provided school supplies earlier to underprivileged kids in Tampa, according to a press release. And on Labor Day, Tarver went to a local Salvation Army and helped serve food to more than 150 people. “I really like the community service we've been doing lately because it makes me feel like I'm making a difference in people's life who are less fortunate then me,” Tarver said in a statement. “I can't wait until for our Turkey Giveaway and Christmas Toy Drive in Tampa/Orlando.”

8. On one hand, I’m glad whenever boxers undergo more stringent drug testing than the athletic commissions would otherwise be doing. But the news last week that Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux will be tested by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, or VADA, doesn’t do much for me.

That has nothing to do with the agency itself, but rather the timetable. Golovkin vs. Lemieux is on Oct. 17, which means there would be barely three weeks of testing done.

It seems as if many of these agreements come quite late and are negotiated long after seemingly everything else has been agreed upon. Testing should be done regularly in this sport, not just when a fight has been scheduled, and especially not many weeks after a fight has already been announced.

We still don’t know how commonplace the use of performance-enhancing drugs is in our sport. And we won’t know so long as drug testing is rare and what drug testing is done isn’t enough.

9. This may go down as the year in which Chris Arreola dropped nearly 16 pounds and Andy Ruiz dropped 20.

Arreola went from 262.25 in his sloppy win over Curtis Harper in March to 246.75 in his fortunate draw against Fred Kassi in July.

Ruiz was 257.75 in November 2013 — 40 pounds lighter than he was for his 2009 pro debut, still far too much for his 6-foot-2 frame — and soon afterwards spoke about how he needed to be between 235 and 240. He nevertheless came in at 250 in May 2014, 272.75 in October 2014, and 267.75 this past December.

But Ruiz just fought for the first time in 2015, stepping into the ring this past Saturday at 247.75 pounds, taking a unanimous decision over late replacement Joell Godfrey.

He’s expected to appear next on the Oct. 24 undercard of Terence Crawford’s fight with Dierry Jean. We’ll see how he looks; keeping him busy like this shouldn’t allow him much time to balloon up given that he’ll be back in the gym.

As for Arreola, it’ll be interesting to hear what kind of shape he’s in when he arrives for his next training camp. He’s coming off two disappointing performances and needs to remain disciplined even if he’s losing morale.

10. When you heard that Roberto Duran’s nickname was “Hands of Stone,” you had a good idea of why he’d been bestowed that moniker.

Two recent fighters to appear on “Premier Boxing Champions” broadcasts have nicknames that raise eyebrows.

Junior middleweight Joey “Twinkle Fingers” Hernandez lost to Austin Trout on Sept. 8. Middleweight/super middleweight Caleb “Sweet Hands” Plant defeated Jamar Freeman on Sept. 22.

Part of me really wants to know where these nicknames came from. Part of me doesn’t.

Alas, the origin of what would be a great college nickname of “Sweet Hands” is far from exciting. Here’s Plant’s father, Richie, speaking with a Nashville magazine, Native:

“We were at an amateur boxing show in Alabama, and some kids who had seen Caleb fight a few times yelled out, ‘Man, you got some sweet hands.’ That is how he got his nickname.”

Sigh. Don’t let me down, Twinkle Fingers…

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com