Veteran trainer and ESPN expert analyst, Teddy Atlas, believes IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) should wait a little while longer before facing WBC champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) in a full division unification.
Years ago, Atlas trained Alexander Povetkin of Russia and famously persuaded the Russian fighter to delay a mandatory fight with Wladimir Klitschko.
Povetkin eventually faced Klitschko in 2013, and survived several knockdowns to lose a twelve round decision. It's the only defeat on Povetkin's career.
Ironically, Povetkin is currently the WBA and WBO mandatory challenger to Joshua.
In the opinion of Atlas, Joshua can fighter several other boxers and make a lot of money - so he doesn't see the reasoning to place him in the ring with someone as dangerous as Wilder.
Joshua is arguably regarded as the biggest star in boxing - with record crowds attending his fights, like the crowd of 90,000 that packed Wembley last April when the British fighter stopped Klitschko.
"Wilder can do one thing. He can punch like a son of a gun! Why would you risk that if you can fight anybody? Joshua’s people should be arrested if they put him in there with him right now," Atlas told Sirius XM’s Boxing Radio Show.
"Right now, they can make money fighting other guys. Maybe a year, two years down the road the fight becomes a bigger fight. Then you go and take that risk."
The two sides are currently in talks, after Wilder's team made an offer of a guaranteed $50 million for a showdown in the United States.
It's still not clear if Joshua and his team will reach an agreement to stage that contest in the near future. Povetkin has already been named as the backup opponent. On the other side, Wilder will likely face the current WBC mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale.
