Eddie Hearn, promoter for Anthony Joshua, says his boxer will not fall into a trap by listening to the words of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
In a recent interview, Wilder said that he was willing to bypass the February rematch with Tyson Fury - and instead take on the winner of the December 7th rematch between Joshua and IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO world champion Andy Ruiz.
Joshua was stopped by Ruiz in seven rounds back in June in New York City. The rematch takes place in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua admits that when he suffered a stoppage loss to Ruiz, he was already looking a head to a potential unification with Wilder.
This time around, Hearn states that his boxer will not make the same mistake.
Hearn explains that Wilder announced that he was facing Luis Ortiz in a rematch during the Joshua-Ruiz fight week. That rematch has yet to be officially announced. And then Wilder revealed that he was facing Tyson Fury in a rematch on a date in February.
"Let me tell you about Deontay Wilder, and actually right now there's no point us talking about Deontay Wilder, because the focus is Andy Ruiz," Hearn told Sky Sports.
"Right now the position that we had, was the position in my opinion of dominance in the division, no longer exists, so we can't be calling out Wilder and this or that. The focus is Ruiz but isn't it interesting that when on fight week Joshua-Ruiz, at the end of May, Deontay Wilder announced that he was fighting Luis Ortiz on Joshua fight week.
"We are now at the beginning of September, there is no fight, there is no venue, there is no date. He hasn't talked about Anthony Joshua probably since that moment. Joshua-Ruiz II media week what happens? Deontay Wilder pops up and says 'Oh, I want to fight Anthony Joshua and unify instead of Tyson Fury.' Why didn't you want to do it when Joshua had the belts?
"For the last nearly two years, every question going into an AJ fight was 'when are you going to fight Wilder? Oh Ruiz, don't worry about Ruiz, when's the Wilder fight?' He fell into that trap before. We're not going to fall into that trap again. Forget Deontay Wilder, let him go and box Tyson Fury. The biggest fight in the heavyweight division is Joshua-Ruiz, that's the focus."
