By Charles Brun: Deontay Wilder says he believes his fight with Anthony Joshua “definitely’ will be taking place in December in Saudi Arabia.
The former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) states that he knows the offer is genuine, and he sees the fight happening with Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) in December.
What could spoil things is the interim fights that both guys are planning on taking. Joshua is taking a risky rematch against Dillian Whyte on August 12th, and that’s essentially a 50-50 affair.
The 35-year-old Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) has looked shot to pieces since 2020, but he can still punch, and he’ll be putting everything he can into knocking out the equally faded gunshy Joshua.
It’s unclear whether it was Joshua or Eddie Hearn’s idea for him to fight a still dangerous Whyte. This guy is like one of those old World War II landmines buried for the last 80 years, and the trigger mechanism is still intact. With Joshua’s weak chin and timid nature, putting him in with Whyte is pure idiocy.
If Joshua loses to Whyte, his massive-money December fight with Deontay will be gone, and someone will need to face the music for the hare-brained idea to use Dillian as a tune-up. Is this Hearn’s idea to use Whyte? If so, watching him squirm and explaining what went wrong if Joshua loses will be interesting.
“Yeah, the offer definitely is out there. There’s a discussion that’s been taking place. It’s a real thing,” said Deontay Wilder to All Out Fighting about him facing Anthony Joshua in December in Saudi Arabia.
On the topic of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight, which is being talked about for an undercard assignment in Saudi’s December mega-card, Deontay isn’t nearly as confident of that match-up taking place.
Wilder sees WBC heavyweight champion Fury as being “indecisive,” and he might not sign to face Usyk. Eddie Hearn believes that Fury doesn’t really want to fight Usyk because he knows it’s a tough match-up for him.
Fury will still take the fight with Usyk if he’s lured with an enormous amount of money from the Saudis. However, with it being a “Take it, leave it” offer, according to Amer Abdullah from Skills Challenge Promotion, Fury might refuse if it’s not gads of money that he was counting on getting.
“Knowing him [Tyson Fury], you wouldn’t be surprised [if the Oleksandr Uyk fight doesn’t happen in December]. He’s one of those types of people, indecisive at times. If he doesn’t sign, me and Anthony Joshua will still proceed,” said Wilder.
