By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua is doing a bit of name-dropping this week by talking up the potential for Deontay Wilder, and Tyson Fury fights rather than focusing on his opponent for Saturday Kubrat Pulev.
Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) says his previous offer to former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) still stands for a fight between them. The IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua doesn’t say precisely what the offer is or when he would be available to the powerful 6’7″ Bronze Bomber Wilder.
It’s safe to say that Wilder won’t be given a title shot against Joshua in 2021, 2022, or 2023. Deontay is too dangerous for the fragile-chinned Joshua, and Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn won’t give that fight the green light because of the risk of losing his cherished golden goose.
If Joshua defeats his IBF mandatory Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs) this Saturday, he’ll either face WBC champ Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) next in the first quarter of the New Year or his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua needs to get the unbeaten Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) of the way, which won’t be easy.
Joshua is offering Wilder a fight
“He is another challenger. Offer still stands when he’s ready, and he’s man enough not to lie, be real,” said Joshua to DAZN Off The Cuff.
“It wasn’t nice when they were trying to tarnish my name. It’ll be good to stop PR stunts and get a fight underway.”
One could take Joshua a little more serious about his so-called interest in defending against Wilder if he didn’t wait until the week of his fight against Pulev to make it.
It’s no secret that there’s not a lot of interest from boxing fans in the Joshua vs. Pulev fight. It seems obvious the whole purpose of AJ in mentioning Wilder and Fury’s name repeatedly this week on a 24/7 basis is to get fans to order his match against Pulev on Sky Box Office PPV.
If the fans think that Joshua will fight Wilder or Fury next, they’d be more willing to purchase AJ’s fight against Pulev. What a sneaky move on Joshua’s part. I wonder if his wily promoter Eddie Hearn is the one to put him up to this?
The fact of the matter is, Wilder has virtually no chance of fighting Joshua in 2021 and likely not shot at facing him in 2022 either.
In a recent interview, Hearn said it could be years before Wilder gets another title shot.
The way Hearn said that it was clear that he wasn’t going to have Joshua throw Wilder a bone by giving him a crack at his three straps.
So for Joshua to now be saying that the “offer still stands” for Wilder to face him, it seems like a calculated statement by AJ to drum up interest in his fight against Pulev.
Joshua wants to create interest in his fight against Pulev; he should try talking about him rather than trickery.