By Jake Tiernan: Deontay Wilder says he wants to travel to England to meet with Anthony Joshua to put together a mega-fight with him. He says he knows that Joshua is “afraid” of him, but he still feels that he can reason to make him understand that their clash is the “biggest fight in the world.”
It’s not looking good for Wilder to get a chance to fight the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua in 2024, as he’s not showing interest in a match against him, which you can’t blame him.
Some fans think Joshua is a broken man, a cowering shell of the fighter he once was when he came out of the 2012 London Olympics with a controversial gold medal given to him.
Unfortunately for the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has other ideas for Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) because he’s chomping at the bit to match him against former UFC champ Francis Ngannou next after his great showing against a faded, worn out looking 35-year-old Tyson Fury last month.
If Hearn can get that fight for Joshua, he then wants to match AJ against Fury for an all-British mega-fight that would have the UK excited, but not necessarily the rest of the world, especially the U.S. Fans in America have their eyes open and don’t view Fury or Joshua as elite level heavyweights and not nearly the best in the division. They’re just two popular fighters that have seen better days.
“I got a lot of people texting me and calling me about it, especially when he got dropped. After the fight, a lot of people were figuring out what was going on. ‘Maybe he did cheat. Maybe he did have something in his gloves.‘ All these things are coming up. ‘He didn’t look himself. He lost,'” said Deontay Wilder to the Blue Blood Sports TV YouTube channel, talking about the controversial victory by Tyson Fury over Francis Ngannou.
Deontay (43-2-1, 42 KOs) appeared to be holding back with his comments about Fury, perhaps because he’s still hoping for a lucrative fourth fight against him.
Given how powerful Fury has become in terms of his Saudis favoring him, it wouldn’t be good for Wilder to get on his bad side right now and potentially be frozen out forever.
Realistically, there’s zero chance that Fury will want to tangle with Wilder a fourth time because their three previous fights took a lot out of him physically, and he’s not looked the same ever since.
Being knocked out cold by Wilder in the first fight and then dropped hard in their trilogy match in 2021 took something out of Fury, leaving the wasted fighter we saw fumbling around the ring Ngannou, getting knocked about by a novice with zero boxing experience.
“Everybody is saying he [Fury] lost. Nobody wants to fight the curse,” said Wilder about he’s being avoided by heavyweights.
Overwhelmingly believe that Fury lost to Ngannou but was given a robbery win due to his popularity. People saw the elbow that Fury hit Ngannou with in the sixth round and viewed that as an example of him outright cheating, trying to do anything he could to win.
“I just don’t know what’s up with Joshua,” said Wilder. “I’m going to have to go to England and sit down with him on some real man s***. I know he’s afraid of me. Joshua, me, and you are the biggest fight in the world. What are you doing?
“Next year is going to be an amazing year starting out with January, and I’m moving forward. As you can see, I’m #1 with the majority of all the rankings. My time is coming. It’s just a matter of time where I will be crowned and back at the top for sure. This time is permanent,” said Wilder.
