By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says the Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder fight is NOT happening for January in Saudi Arabia because the deal couldn’t be delivered at that time.
Hearn now says the plan is to move Joshua-Wilder to February or March, and he’s looking for “other sites” for the mega-fight.
In the meantime, Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) could fight in December, but he’s got to make up his mind about that by next week. Interestingly, Hearn didn’t mention Zhilei Zhang’s name as a potential opponent for Joshua if he does fight in December, which obviously means he’s not going to take the risk of putting AJ in with the dangerous ‘Big Bang.’
Hearn was bragging the other day about how Joshua would easily beat the “slow” Zhang, but now that AJ’s fight with Deontay is off for January, he’s not showing interest in pulling the trigger on the bout with the powerful Chinese knockout artist.
Boxing fans need to brace themselves for another Robert Helenius or Jermaine Franklin type of opponent for Joshua’s fight in December if he fights then.
“We’re spinning plates as we always do. You know what we want to do. We want to fight Deontay Wilder. That was supposed to happen in January,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV Youtube channel about the Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder mega-fight.
We accepted the offer. We know that didn’t materialize now because it was made by someone who couldn’t deliver the fight at that time. That’s alright, it happens. We’d agreed, Wilder agreed. Now, we’re talking to other sites about that fight in February or March, and that’s still the plan, very much the plan.
“Now, the other plan is do we fight in December, and that’s something we have to decide quite honestly next week because it’s not that far away. So, AJ needs to get in camp if he’s going to fight in December.
“He may just wait for the big fight in February or March, but he also wants to fight and stay active. So, we’ll have to see. We got December 2nd that’s going to be a show,” said Hearn when asked when in December could Joshua fight.
“We got December 23rd, which is going to be a show that is definitely happening. December 9 and December 16th are locked in. So, it’s either 2 or 23 or 30. Maybe we’ll do them on the same night,” said Hearn about potentially placing the Joshua vs. Wilder on the same night as Conor Benn vs. Chris Eubank Jr.
