By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel wants fans to know that the ‘Bronze Bomber’ will take the fight with IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) when the conditions are right for the fight to get made. As of now, the fight isn’t happening.
Finkel revealed on Monday to Talksport that he’s had very little luck in trying to have talks with Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, who has failed to call when he’s set a time to talk to him.
“When the conditions are right, Deontay would love to fight Anthony Joshua,” Finkel said to skysports.com.
Hearn is interested in signing Wilder to his Matchroom Boxing USA promotion.
It’s quite possible that Wilder may not ever get the fight with Joshua until one of the two loses.
For the fight to get made, it’s going to take a lot of give on Hearn and Joshua’s part. Wilder isn’t going to accept the low ball offers from Hearn and AJ. They’re going to sweeten the deal in a major way to get Deontay to agree to it. Hearn said recently that he’d offer Wilder a 60-40 deal, but it’s unclear whether’s that’s reality.
Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) recently fought former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) to a 12 round draw last December in Los Angeles, California. The two were going to battle each other in a rematch, but then Fury signed with ESPN and Top Rank, who are going to try and slowly build the 6’9″ into a star, which is probably going to take A LOT of soft match-making unfortunately. Fury could turn into a star if he’s matched carefully for a long period of time. It’s going to be hard though if Top Rank matches him against foreign domestic level opposition.
Wilder will be fighting next on May 18 on SHOWTIME at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It could be Dominic Breazeale (20-1, 18 KOs), Wilder’s World Boxing Council mandatory, that winds up fighting him on that date. Even that’s not certain.
Hearn says he’s going to try and make sure that the Wilder-Breazeale fight count as a voluntary defense for Wilder, and not as a mandatory. Joshua is fighting one of Hearn’s fighters in 315 pound Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs) on June 1 on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. Hearn recently signed the New Yorker Miller to his Matchroom Boxing USA DAZN stable, and he’s been feeding him mediocre opposition to make him look good. Now he’s put Miller in what some fans see as a cash out fight. It’ll be interesting to see if Hearn dumps Miller from his promotional company if/when he loses the fight to Joshua on June 1.
“If Joshua and Eddie really want to make a deal, they get off their high horse and they say ‘OK, we’re ready to make a deal, we’re not offering you things, what do you want?’ That’s not in their mindset and I have no interest in going any further with it,” Finkel said to Talksport.com.