Anthony Wint wants to be respectful, but he’s not shying away from calling out opponents with plenty of buzz around them.
First and foremost is overnight sensation Sean Sharaf. Wint stayed undefeated Saturday at UFC 332 with a 23-second knockout over Lucas Armand, then called for a fight with Sharaf in his post-fight interview. Sharaf recently became one of the most talked-about fighters in the heavyweight division with his massive upset against blue-chip prospect Gable Steveson at UFC 331.
Wint elaborated on the callout speaking to reporters later in the evening.
“It’s all of the above,” Wint said of his reasons for wanting to fight Sharaf. “I want to fight [at UFC 334 on Nov. 14] in New York and obviously, this short notice it’s hard to get that call, especially for the biggest card of all year. I love Sean. There’s no beef between me and Sean, so I hope people don’t build it up as that. He actually gave me a ride from the P.I. to my hotel when I was over there, so we had a good conversation just about his journey and as much as I’m calling him out, I’m giving him an opportunity as well because I think he has the skills and we’ve seen that he has the power to put me out, so I think that I’m going to bring the best version of myself out fighting him and he’s going to be able to prove again that he can prove the doubters wrong because I think I’m better than him and I think a lot of people would agree with me.
“There’s a lot of people, he has a big fan base now, they’re going to be like, ‘No, Sean, go out there and knock this dude out again,’ and I think that makes for a great fight. At the end of the day, we’re in the business of sport, but we’re in the business of show. It’s a market at the end of the day and I think that’s a huge fight to make.”
Should Wint land on the Nov. 14 card in New York, he could end up sharing a stage with Hokit, who who headlines the event opposite Ciryl Gane with heavyweight gold on the line. Wint was asked how he might react if he ends up exchanging words with Hokit, another heavyweight who has made a meteoric rise to the top of the division due to his impressive performances and provocative comments.
“That’s something that I can’t even think about,” Wint said. “Obviously, Josh goes at people all the time, and I’ve mentioned his name a bunch of times, but as you can see, there’s nothing bad for me to say about Josh. Am I fan of his antics? No, but I don’t pay his bills. He said before, I wasn’t with him when he got cut from the [NFL] and had to figure stuff out and couldn’t provide for his family. Just like people that wasn’t necessarily around me, I feel like I went a different direction from him, and I can’t think about a presser because I don’t know what spirit he’s going to be [in] when he sees me.
“Obviously, he puts on characters, I don’t know what character I’m going to see, but I have nothing but love for Josh, just like I’ve got nothing but love for Lucas and Terrance [Chatman] and Matthew [Adams]. It’s never any beef, but also I am very cunning on the mic, so if we want to go tit for tat, it’s going to be very tasteful and we’ll see what he has. But I can’t think about that man, Josh has earned his position. He’s fighting for a title, I can’t think about fighting him right now, but I wish him the best.”
Due to their shared professional football background and inexperience, Wint understands that the faster he rises up the ranks, the more he’ll be compared to Hokit.
“Pretty much every conversation is Josh or it used to be Gable,” Wint said.
