Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn and promoter of former unified Heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, has revealed more regarding the British fighter’s plans this year after confirming in his latest interview that the negotiations for a Deontay Wilder fight were close to being fully completed. With the two fighters having been heavily rumored to fight each other over the past couple of weeks, there has been a genuine effort ― on at least the part of Team Joshua ― to make sure that the fight doesn’t fall through.
At the front of these negotiations appears to be Saudi boxing promotion Skill Challenge Entertainment Enterprises (SCEE) ― founded by Prince Khalid of Saudi Arabia’s ruling royal family and headed by former kickboxer Amer Abdallah ― who have already organized two multi-million events with Matchroom when Anthony Joshua (25-3, 22 KO’s) fought Andy Ruiz Jr. (35-2, 22 KO’s) in 2019, and again in 2022 when Joshua faced Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KO’s) in their respective rematch.
“They (SCEE) want to make that night; they want to make Joshua versus Wilder, and Fury versus Usyk.” Hearn confirmed through his own outlet of Matchroom Boxing.
“For us, we’re in. We need to finalize terms, but you know, we just said to Prince Khalid, ‘That’s the fight we want’.
“We know, having worked with them before, (that) we can get a deal done, and really that is what we’re looking to do this week.
“Next week is just (to) look at the situation and decide if there’s a fight ― which will now be early August, for Anthony Joshua, if he does fight before then.“
Based on Eddie Hearn’s own words, Anthony Joshua’s message of only fighting in December seems to have been prematurely released given negotiations for a potential fight with Deontay Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KO’s had not even fully materialized then, much less finalized. Only now does there seem to be movement in talks between all the involved parties, which includes SCEE, and depending on how the negotiations for a Wilder fight go, Anthony Joshua can and may fight in August prior to his blockbuster match-up with the American.
“Our message (to SCEE) was, AJ’s ready for all of those fights, (we are) happy to agree to a Deontay Wilder fight in December and we’ll see if we can close terms over the next couple of weeks.” Eddie Hearn said.
It is yet unknown if the supposed talks will actually involve four of the top Heavyweights, including Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KO’s), on the same card in a mega event, but so far there’s every indication that a Joshua versus Wilder bout can at least occur. Tyson Fury’s last message surrounding the supposed tournament that would be held in the Middle East suggested there were no talks, at least in his case, but SCEE’s CEO Amer Abdullah has since then confirmed the opposite.
In any case, Anthony Joshua might still face two more opponents in 2023 unlike his previous statement indicated, and with no apparent injuries, failed drug tests or personal problems riddling the British boxer, there is little to stand in the way of him preparing himself for his match-up with the dangerous “Bronze Bomber”, Deontay Wilder, who has stopped or knocked out every opponent he has won against so far.
