Today it has emerged that Eddie Hearn has set a date for Anthony Joshua to get in the ring with Deontay Wilder, but at the moment he is alone in this wish.
He has confirmed that he wants to schedule the fight for December of this year but knows that getting Wilder camp on board could be wishful thinking as freetips.com reports.
Recently the Wilder team have said that they would actually prefer to put off even trying to negotiate a date for the two to meet until next year which has caused the Joshua camp to consider the fact they are dodging the idea altogether.
In June Joshua will face off against Andy Ruiz Jr and his promoter Eddie Hearn is confident that the best time for him to then take on Wilder would be in December.
Speaking to Sky Sports recently Eddie gave his views.
“Hopefully in November-December. Josh is fighting June 1, and then he’ll go in November-December, and that’s when we want the Wilder fight. It’s the only fight to make next for both guys, but everything we’re hearing out of their camp is not really giving us much encouragement that this is the fight that is going to happen.”
However, Hearn has also acknowledged that due to Wilder’s schedule the bout could be as late as 2021 before it actually comes to fruition. Wilder still has Luis Ortiz and Adam Kownacki on his card after his fixture on May 19. Which is seemingly causing great frustration to Hearn who spoke to IFL TV about the situation.
“I know that Luis Ortiz has already been promised the Wilder fight, I know that Adam Kownacki has already been promised the Wilder fight. So we’re not just talking about 2020, we might be talking about 2021 when Wilder’s available. “It’s bulls*** for the sport of boxing it really is, and it’s annoying because certain people without the brain capacity presume that Joshua doesn’t want to fight Wilder – you couldn’t be more wrong.”
Wilder is not the only one looking for a fight with Luis Ortiz either. Hearn also revealed that Joshua is keen to get in the ring with him. Originally he was scheduled to meet Jarrell Miller, but the heavyweight has been left disgraced after he failed three drugs tests.
This has left Miller without a bouncing license as the New York State Athletic Commission refused to grant him one so that fight is very much off. But things seem to be up in the air with Eddie claiming that other promoters are preventing their fighters getting to the ring even when the opportunities are substantial, and feels that they are stopping fights against his man.
“They’re being told what to do. They should be the one saying, ‘I’m taking it. $7 million, my life is complete. My kid’s life is complete. Their kids’ life is complete. I believe I can beat AJ. Either they don’t believe they can beat AJ or someone is telling them not to take the fight.”
