Deontay Wilder details strange negotiation tactic to get Anthony Joshua fight signed
DEONTAY WILDER has given his thoughts on how to succeed in negotiating a fight with Anthony Joshua after so many failed attempts.
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Deontay Wilder has suggested that he, Anthony Joshua, Shelly Finkel and Eddie Hearn should all sit down in California and “light one up” to help negotiate a potential mega-fight. The pair have been in talks on multiple occasions, yet nothing has come to fruition so far.
The Bronze Bomber is keen to stop tensions from boiling over and has suggested a strange negotiation tactic to ensure an amicable discussion between the two camps.
“We’re gonna have to go to California and all just light one up and discuss it man,” Wilder told the Last Stand Podcast. “That’s a good idea. You can see Shelly Finkel passing it to Eddie Hearn, Joshua passing it to me. That’s so funny.”
Wilder added: “I’m willing and able for everybody. Still wanna whoop that ass. I’m not gonna rob the fans of not making that fight happen. I definitely want that fight to happen. I just wanna know if they’re for real.”
Hearn reached out to Wilder’s manager, Finkel, a few days before Joshua’s second fight with Oleksandr Usyk with a big-money offer. The Matchroom Boxing chief highlighted Wilder as the Watford powerhouse’s main target after losing to the Ukrainian again but has struggled to get through to his team.
Speaking to Seconds Out in August, he said: "I actually reached out to Shelly Finkel the other day because I have got so much money for Deontay Wilder in an offer, but they never come back to me, so I don’t know whether Deontay Wilder doesn’t want to hear about that offer or whatever."
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Despite his lack of response to Hearn, Finkel told The Sun: "I'm not closed to it. I would never just walk away from it. If there's a big offer there for that fight and Eddie wants to talk about it, at that point we'll figure out what to do.
"If it's meant to be this time - which it wasn't in the past - it will happen. If it's not meant to be, we'll go our way, and they'll go theirs. It's had a couple of years to build up, it's like Mayweather and Pacquaio for an example, it didn't lose any glamour at that time."
A fight may well happen down the line but for now, AJ is close to completing the long-awaited all-British showdown with WBC champion Tyson Fury. Both men are expected to square off on December 3 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales with a rematch clause signed into the contract.