DEONTAY Wilder has claimed that he would love to fight Anthony Joshua ‘as soon as possible’ even after reports of a breakdown in talks for a bout in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said today that the deal for the fight in January between the two former heavyweight boxing world champions had fallen through.
Hearn added that they were still trying to secure a different location for the mega bout for February or March.
The American Wilder, who was once the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, had been targeting a long-awaited battle with the Nigerian-British Joshua, who is a two-time World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organisation champion, in the Middle East at the end of this year.
Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkel has confirmed that the 37-year-old still ‘desires’ a fight with Joshua in the near future.
The fight between Wilder and the 33-year-old Joshua is highly anticipated and would be one of the biggest in the history of the heavyweight division.
Wilder has an intimidating professional record of 43 wins in 46 fights, 42 of his victories coming via knockout.
He has had one draw and two losses, all in fights against Tyson Fury, the current WBC champion.
On his part, Joshua has fought professionally 29 times, winning 26, 23 of them by knockout.
He has lost three bouts, one to Andy Ruiz Jr and the other two to Oleksandr Usyk, who took his WBA, IBF and WBO belts.
Incidentally, Fury and Usyk are also on course for another big fight.
