Jay Deas, the head trainer and co-manager of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs), says a unification deal to fight IBF, WBA, WBO, IBO world champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) can get done very quickly.
Earlier, Joshua stated that a showdown with Wilder would have to happen on UK soil.
“I think the first one has to be in the UK. I want to be able to call that shot because I’ve worked extremely hard to put myself in a power position when it comes to the negotiations, so hopefully, he’ll understand and come to the UK to get this fight on," Joshua told Sky Sports.
According to Deas, who along with Shelly Finkel and Al Haymon manages Wilder, says there is no issue with making a deal to stage the fight in the UK.
“He issued the challenge, we accepted,” Deas said to the Tuscaloosa News.
“We don’t have an ego about this. It’s all about getting the fight done. We’ve agreed to fight in the UK. We’ve agreed to a 60-40 split (in Joshua’s favor) in the purse as long as those numbers are reversed in the rematch if Deontay wins, which of course we expect he will. Both sides want a rematch clause.
“So it’s not like we would be starting from square one. We can get this done quickly.”
Deas also dismissed some of the claims by Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, who told told several outlets that Wilder might fight Dominic Breazeale instead of Joshua.
Breazeale fought on the undercard of Wilder’s February 2017 title defense in Birmingham and later fought Joshua for the IBF title.
“We’re committed to this and we’re going to do everything we can,” Deas said. “We are not looking at anything past making this fight a reality. You only get so many opportunities for a fight like this and you don’t want to let one slip past.”
