Anthony Joshua still insists that a fight between him and former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is going to happen eventually.
Joshua could make things easy by insisting that his promoter Eddie Hearn set up a fight with Wilder for July in a stadium in England because it’s too risky to delay the match beyond that.
Besides, there’s not a lot of interest from boxing fans in seeing Joshua fight the over-the-hill Whyte, who has already lost three out of his last four fights.
Wilder is currently trying to position himself to earn a fourth fight against Tyson Fury by looking to face Andy Ruiz Jr in a WBC title eliminator. You can’t rule out a win for Ruiz because Wilder has looked terrible in three out of his last four fights.
If the Alabama native loses to Ruiz, whatever interest there once was in a fight between him and Joshua will be gone.
With Joshua’s career sinking fast, the chances of him and Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) meeting inside the ring are dwindling. If he loses against his next opponent Jermaine Franklin on April 1st, it would be pointless to attempt to face Deontay afterward.
Wilder maintains that Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) had a chance to fight him years ago but turned down a $50 million offer, which was mind-boggling. AJ obviously hasn’t been making that kind of money in his fights against Oleksandr Usyk, Andy Ruiz Jr, and Kubrat Pulev.
“It will happen, and I think it’s long overdue. It’s a conversation that’s been happening for a long time, so for me to say, ‘It’s going happen, it’s going to happen,’ it’ll feel like I’m just waffling. When it does, it does. And it will,” said Anthony Joshua to iFL TV about a fight against Deotany Wilder.
“I’ve been in that realm before where I’ve spoken about it, and it didn’t materialize,” Joshua continued about the elusive fight against former WBC champion Wilder. “When it materializes, it’ll happen.
“I didn’t score the fight. I was just taking notes,” said Joshua when asked if he felt Franklin deserved the victory against Dillian Whyte last November. “I just said, ‘Jermaine Franklin is free to fight. Cool.’ I don’t get caught up in all that. he’s a good fighter.
“I would have fought whoever they said. I heard loads of names. I don’t know half of these people that they’re mentioning. A lot of things that were said on the Internet by Eddie. No one speaks to me. Half of the stuff isn’t even factual.
“Whoever it is, until their name is on the dotted line, I don’t believe any of it,” said Joshua.
