By Mitch Abramson

 

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder hopes to provide fans of Alabama football and his own heroics an all-you-can-eat buffet-style treat on Sept. 26, when he faces Frenchman Johann Duhaupas at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, AL.

 

On that same day, second-ranked Alabama faces Louisiana-Monroe at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, where Wilder is from.

 

So Wilder hopes that after fans watch the 4 p.m. football game, they make the hour drive to his fight later that evening (Premier Boxing Champions

 on NBC, Saturday 8:30 p.m. ET).

 

“We got a lot of things going on in the state of Alabama,” Wilder said. “I think it’s a great thing that Alabama is playing and then now you got a ‘Bama boy who is a world champion Deontay Wilder that’s fighting. I would like to see (a situation) where people come to a game in the day time and then at night they come to a fight."

"They’re bringing money and revenue to the state so just imagine if people could sit around and we’ll go to a game in the day time and then we sit around and spend more money and they stay in hotels and stay around a little bit longer and then they go to a fight? That’s a great weekend all around for them so anything for the state of Alabama I definitely take pride in."

"They show me even more love as a champion that (I) decided to stay here in the city of Tuscaloosa when I could have been anywhere in the world. But I chose to stay here because I had a vision that I wanted to do and everything is going great. So good luck to the Crimson Tide and they have their game and I’m definitely going to handle my business that night.”