Deontay Wilder is losing patience after his heavyweight showdown against Anthony Joshua suffered yet another delay.
Joshua and Wilder have been linked to fight for several years but the former heavyweight champions are yet to meet in the ring. An illustrious Saudi Arabia event that would have featured an undisputed fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk and Joshua vs Wilder was being targeted for the end of the year, but talks have since pushed the fight back until January – if it happens at all.
Wilder’s coach Malik Scott has admitted that ‘The Bronze Bomber’ is getting frustrated as he continues to train without a fight lined up. “I just know that Deontay was training yesterday and the day before that he was training. “It’s a real frustrating situation because Deontay is the one as far as activity is the one who misses out. There were a lot of promises and seems like those promises are being broken a little bit, but we’ll see,” he told ESNews.
Joshua recently picked up his first knockout win in over two years by stopping short-notice replacement Robert Helenius, who failed a drug test just two weeks after the fight. Helenius replaced Joshua’s domestic rival Dillian Whyte after he was forced out of the fight having also returned an adverse finding in a pre-fight drug test.
Matchroom Boxing boss Eddie Hearn admitted talks for Joshua vs Wilder have hit a roadblock in recent weeks but the promotion are looking at other countries in the Middle East to host the mega-fight. Hearn thinks ‘AJ’ may take another fight at the end of the year to stay active in preparation for a clash with Wilder.
“It’s definitely not dead in the water but it’s slow,” Hearn told sportnow Fighting about the fight. “You see different entities now involved in boxing in Saudi and for us, we’ve already agreed terms for that fight but we’re yet to sign a contract. I’m sure their strategy is moving all my time, but there is a chance it doesn’t happen. I’ve never said there isn’t, but when we were told six or seven weeks ago that this fight is done, we’ve had a lot of confidence that is fact.
“Now things have changed a little bit in that landscape. I don’t know what they’re going to want to do. Are they going to the two fights on the same night, which is also now being discussed? Do they want to do Usyk against Fury or do they want to do Fury vs AJ? I don’t know, but sooner or later we will get to a spot in time where we need to move on in December/January.”
