Promoter Barry Hearn of Matchroom Sport is laughing off any talk that Anthony Joshua is not the king of the weight class.
Last Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and lineal champion Tyson Fury fought to a controversial twelve round split draw.
Joshua, who Hearn's company promotes, is scheduled to fight again on April 13th at Wembley Stadium in London.
Hearn made it clear that his company won't entertain any "silly deals" to fight Wilder or Fury - and they will not allow themselves to be pressured by the boxing public to do either fight.
The veteran promoter also rejected Fury's claim that being the lineal champion holds significance in the weight class.
“AJ’s first choice is Wilder because when you’re collecting belts, which he is, he wants to be the unified champ. He’d love to fight Fury as well, but for now I think Wilder is the one he wants. There’s three or four options at the minute for us. Sooner or later fight fans are going to get everything they want, but we won’t be doing any silly deals – that’s for sure," Hearn told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on Talk Sport.
“There’s a lot to talk about. This business is about money at the end of the day. It’s not totally out of the window (Joshua and Fury) but look they didn’t sell out the Staples Center and the numbers were relatively low in regards to pay-per-view. If they did a rematch of course it would be much bigger and the prospect increases (of them fighting AJ).
“When they get to the promised land, the land of milk and honey, that’s when they fight Anthony Joshua. So both of them need to stop kidding themselves. We’d love the fight against either of them – it would be great for fight fans. AJ wants to be fighting the best, but not on silly terms. At the end of AJ is the best heavyweight in the world, and commercially heads and shoulders above the rest.
“I heard Darren Gough talking about lineal champions on the radio yesterday, I have no idea what that is though. I think it’s some kind of fantasy title we’ve made up – like I’m the king of the street or what not. The main thing is that the titles are with Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
"We call the shots at the end of the day – we have AJ. I’m sorry but if you go to work and you’re not happy with your wages, you’ll probably change your job and look for a better deal. Being the size of the company we are and having the assets Anthony Joshua has and we have collectively – it means we don’t do silly deals. We don’t listen to people who say ‘you’ve got to do this’. We haven’t got to do anything. I have to wake up in the morning and I try to stay up until I go to bed at night – they are the only two things I have to do.”