Wilder’s coach throws Anthony Joshua fight into doubt after agreement claims

Anthony Joshua not ‘wasting time’ waiting for Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder

The coach of Deontay Wilder has thrown a titanic clash with Anthony Joshua into doubt. The prospect of the two boxing heavyweights fighting one another intensified when the Brit knocked out Robert Helenius last month for his first KO victory in two years.

This past weekend, AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn claimed both parties were close to an agreement on financial terms, but no venue had been decided. However, Malik Scott, Widler’s coach and close friend, seems rather disgruntled with negotiations at the moment and appears to be losing faith in the bout taking place.

“I just know that Deontay was training yesterday and the day before that he was training,” he told ESNews. “It’s a real frustrating situation because Deontay is the one as far as activity is the one who misses out. There were a lot of promises and seems like those promises are being broken a little bit, but we’ll see.”

Helenius was a last-minute replacement to fight Joshua following Dillian Whyte’s failed pre-fight drug test. He is also the Wilder’s last opponent. The Bronze Bomber wasted no time beating the 39-year-old by way of knockout in the opening round last October.

Having not fought in almost a year, Wilder wants to have a warm-up fight before stepping into the ring with Joshua. Hearn claims Joshua will opt to make his third fight of the year should his clash with Wilder take longer to be confirmed than currently anticipated. He told BBC Five Live: “He [Joshua] is just training away but he wants Wilder. If it can’t be made, he wants to stay active.

“If he fights in December, that’ll be three fights in eight months which is incredible for him. People keep saying he should have one more fight and then fight Wilder, but we don’t think so. If it ends up that way, so be it and nothing would surprise me.

“If he fights in December, if he fights Deontay Wilder if he fights Tyson Fury next – nothing would surprise me. He’s had two now on the spin at The O2 Arena, so maybe we go to Madison Square Garden, somewhere in the Middle East. It’s just about activity for him.”

Don’t miss…
Tyson Fury’s plans for fight after Francis Ngannou sum up heavyweight champion[LATEST]
Rugby World Cup winner Williams became Fury and Parker’s sparring partner[LATEST]
Jake Paul responds to conspiracy theory he will fight brother Logan[LATEST]

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

A Joshua vs. Wilder fight was set to be part of an illustrious Saudi Arabia event along with an undisputed fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk being targeted for the end of the year. But talks have hit a stumbling block and any potential bout has been pushed back to as early as January, as they look at other countries in the Middle East to host the mega-fight.

“It’s definitely not dead in the water but it’s slow,” Hearn told Mirror Fighting about the fight. “You see different entities now involved in boxing in Saudi and for us, we’ve already agreed terms for that fight but we’re yet to sign a contract.

“I’m sure their strategy is moving all my time, but there is a chance it doesn’t happen. I’ve never said there isn’t, but when we were told six or seven weeks ago that this fight is done, we had a lot of confidence that is fact. Now things have changed a little bit in that landscape. But sooner or later we will get to a spot in time where we need to move on in December/January.”

Source: Read Full Article