This would be the big one. Anthony Joshua has blown away pretty much all challengers in his rise to the top of the heavyweight division, and yet he cannot escape the criticism that he has avoided the other big hitters in his weight class. We are of course talking about Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.
Those two faced off in Las Vegas last December, with the fight finishing in a controversial draw. It had been expected that the pair would meet once again in a rematch in the coming months, but those plans have been put on the back burner for now. With Fury having signed an $8omillion deal with ESPN in the States, the Wilder fight could be a fair bit down the road.
WBC champion Wilder will now likely face mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale in a title bout. Never one to miss an opportunity, Eddie Hearn seems to have reacted to this unexpected turn of events.
Speaking to TheBoxingVoice, Joshua's promoter said he would like to host the American's next title fight on US broadcaster DAZN, and would be offering him $15million to get a deal done.
I think you’ve gotta give him $15million for that fight, but that’s the marketplace. It’s crazy.
You can’t have Joshua making whatever he’s making, Fury making $20million and then Wilder sitting there going, ‘Okay, I’ll take $7million.’
He can get it [$15million] on DAZN and he can get it on ESPN.
Of course, as is always the case with Hearn, he has the bigger picture in mind here. Such a deal would only be on the table if Wilder agreed to a unification fight with Anthony Joshua in his subsequent fight, which would take place before the end of the year.
He hasn’t got to sign with me to come and fight on DAZN. He can come and fight on my shows.
If he’s got offers out there for $15million to fight for a voluntary defence– [it could be against] Breazeale, Whyte, Kownacki.
I’m not looking to tie you into five/six fights like Top Rank. We’ve gotta do one voluntary, then two Joshua fights.
There are a number of potential obstacles to a potential deal such as this one. Firstly, Wilder isn't going to do Eddie Hearn any favours, you can be assured of that. The world champion also has close ties to Showtime/Fox, and his next fight will likely appear on that network.
Regardless, this is a fight we would all like to see at some stage. If Anthony Joshua is to be held in the high regard by boxing fans that he is hoping for, he going to have come toe-to-toe with Wilder or Fury sooner rather than later.
