Amir Khan speculates that his countryman, Anthony Joshua, may have a bit of fear in his heart when it comes to a potential unification with Deontay Wilder.
The two heavyweights were negotiating the terms a few months ago, but their discussions were abruptly stopped when Joshua's team indicated that a mandatory defense was necessary against Alexander Povetkin.
Joshua retained his WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO heavyweight titles with a knockout of Povetkin in seven rounds at Wembley Stadium in London.
Wilder would finalize a deal to defense his WBC world title against Tyson Fury, which took place last Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The fight was a give and take affair that ended in a controversial twelve round split draw.
A rematch appears likely.
Joshua is scheduled to return on April 13th, back at Wembley. He wants to face Wilder on the date - but very few insiders expect the contest to happen.
“One thing about fighters… The fight would have happened if [Joshua] wasn’t scared of him. Maybe he has a little bit of fear in him – that's why the fight never happened," Khan said to Express Sport.
“It’s hard to say sometimes – maybe [Joshua] was getting paid more money to fight someone easy. And he thought: ‘Why should I take that risk?’ Because it is a risk, at the end of the day.”
As far as Wilder and Fury, Khan feels that it might be better for both of them to take an interim-bout and then come together for a rematch.
“I think maybe they’ll both take an easier fight in between,” Khan added.
“Because sometimes what we see is two hard fights on the trot can take a lot out of a fighter.
“Get the confidence back, take an easy fight, little work, go back to the hard fight again. As I’ve been told by many trainers, many experienced trainers – they say: ‘Never jump into a hard fight again.’”