Anthony Joshua: record, next fight and profile →
The heavyweight fight to make is the one between unified champion Anthony Joshua and WBC belt-holder Deontay Wilder. But Shelly Finkel, who advises Wilder, believes the chance of this match-up happening next are slim and none.
Shelly Finkel, co-manager of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, has no desire to meet with Matchroom Sport's Barry Hearn to discuss a new deal for an April 2019 unification with IBF, WBA, IBO and WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Eddie Hearn wants to have a deal in place with Deontay Wilder’s handlers for an Anthony Joshua-Wilder fight before Wilder faces Tyson Fury on December 1. Hearn’s rationale is that he doesn’t want to wait until December 2 to begin negotiating again with Wilder’s adviser, Al Haymon, and co-manager, Shelly Finkel, because based on their previous negotiations Hearn knows it’ll be a complicated process to finalize a deal for England’s Joshua and Alabama’s Wilder to meet in a heavyweight title unification fight April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London. That deal would be contingent, Hearn said, on Wilder winning his fight against Fury at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
WBC, IBF, WBO, WBA cruiserweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk (15-0, 11 KOs) is not exactly making it a secret that his overall game plan is to get his hands on Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs), who holds the WBO, IBO, IBF, WBA world titles at heavyweight.
Anthony Joshua stated his eagerness to fight Deontay Wilder at Wembley next April after overcoming a major scare at the London venue to emphatically defeat Alexander Povetkin. Joshua was troubled by Povetkin early on and suffered a bloodied nose in the opening round, but ultimately retained his WBA, IBF, IBO and WBO heavyweight world title belts in style with a brutal seventh-round stoppage on Saturday.
Lineal champion Tyson Fury erupted in the direction of Anthony Joshua, after watching the unified champion's stoppage win over Alexander Povetkin. After getting rattled in the early going, Joshua knocked out Povetikn to in the seventh round to retain the WBA, IBO, WBO, IBF heavyweight titles at a very packed Wembley Stadium in London.
According to Eddie Hearn, the promoter for IBO, IBF, WBA, WBO heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs), their full focus is to secure a unification with WBC king Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) for Wembley Stadium on April 13.
Anthony Joshua didn’t quite seem like himself throughout the week before his fight against Alexander Povetkin. According to promoter Eddie Hearn, the huge heavyweight champion had every reason to feel a bit off before beating Povetkin by seventh-round technical knockout at Wembley Stadium in London. Hearn told IFL TV during a post-fight interview that Joshua had a “horrific” training camp, during which he suffered undisclosed injuries, and battled the flu throughout fight week.
What fans take into a fight can color how they perceive the realities that unfold. Saturday’s heavyweight clash between titlist Anthony Joshua and Alexander Povetkin was happening under an obvious cloud. The majority of boxing fans wanted to see Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder.
Barry Hearn has warned rival boxing promoter Frank Warren that Anthony Joshua will not accept a 50-50 purse split for a prospective all-British super-fight against Tyson Fury in April next year. Hearn, head of Joshua's promoters Matchroom, responded furiously to an assertion from Warren on BBC 5 Live's Sportsweek programme that the pair would share the proceeds of the big-money bout.