Hearn explains the numbers for Joshua-Wilder fight no longer work
Anthony Joshua held up his end of the bargain on December 23 in Riyadh by beating Otto Wallin in five rounds to set up a huge mega-fight with long-term rival Deontay Wilder in 2024, but a points loss for ‘The Bronze Bomber’ to Joseph Parker on the same night in Saudi has since sabotaged the New Year’s plans.
Two-time world heavyweight champion Joshua will now fight former UFC champion Francis Ngannou on the same night in March that was reserved for his showdown with Wilder.
When posed the question by Kugan Cassius whether the fight between Joshua and Wilder could still take place, promoter Eddie Hearn was very implicit in his short answer, “No. the fight’s dead.”
He expanded, “You never know what’s going to happen in the future, but we had both signed contracts to announce the fight that night, obviously subject to everybody winning.
“So when Wilder lost, we had to go in the changing rooms to Josh and he was like, ‘He just lost?’ So don’t worry about that, you do your thing, and obviously he did his thing outstandingly and the fight’s dead, for now. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future?”
Eddie explained exactly why the match is now redundant, “The people that wanted to put the fight on no longer see that as the fight that it was. The negotiations that have taken place up to that point to agree the deal, the numbers don’t work now because Wilder’s a busted flush, at the moment.”
He then shared his honest opinion on how he perceives that fight now, “I know that Deontay Wilder always has ‘the punch’ etcetera, etcetera, but it’s a mismatch at the moment, in my opinion.”
“If you listen to every interview I’ve ever given, outside of his power, I don’t rate him. And when you look at his resume, I don’t know how many times I’ve got to say that he hasn’t beaten anyone.
“He’s beaten Luis Ortiz, who is a very, very old, arguably elite top 10 when they fought, but that is it, and I’m not trying to be critical, but I’ve never really got it.
“So exciting, so entertaining, great interviews, ‘Bomb Squad!’… love it, but he ain’t in AJ’s league.”
He concluded, “Our aim is to fight the winner of Fury-Usyk. That’s all we want to do. Obviously, there’s the Hrgovic fight out there for the [IBF] world title.”