Eddie Hearn: Deontay Wilder doesn’t want the Joshua fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Tim Royner: Eddie Hearn seems to be fed up in waiting for Deontay Wilder to sign for the unification fight against Anthony Joshua Hearn complains that WBC heavyweight champion Wilder has had the contract that he sent to his management for an entire week, and yet he still hasn’t signed for the fight. The only thing Hearn sees is Wilder posting video on his Instagram, which he feels is silly.

Hearn believes that Wilder is totally deluded and not interested in taking the fight with Joshua. There are rumors that Hearn wants his new platform DAZN to stream he Joshua vs. Wilder fight, and that Showtime isn’t interested in that idea. If the rumors are true, DAZN would be streamed in the U.S, and it would compete with Showtime’s broadcast of the Joshua-Wilder fight, which of course would be a bad deal for Showtime. They don’t need to have a competitor for the fight in the States.

At any rate, if Wilder doesn’t sign soon, Hearn is going to be forced to move on and put together the fight between Joshua and hi WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin. Hearn says he’s receiving calls every day from the World Boxing Association about the need for him to make the Joshua-Povetkin fight if Wilder doesn’t sign for the unification fight soon.

”He has now had the contract a week. We are getting calls from the WBA on a daily basis asking what’s happening, there is absolutely zero urgency from Deontay and his team other than posting silly Instagram videos,” Hearn said to skysports.com. ”I believe Deontay and his team do not want this fight.”

Wilder’s team hasn’t signed the contract for some unknown reason. It’s very likely they see something in the contract that they don’t agree with. If this was a contract that they felt was a great deal, they would have signed already. Joshua asking for more money plus having the fight take place in his home country of the UK is bad enough. But there’s no telling what else Hearn has put in the contract that is making Team Wilder stall in agreeing to the contract. If the DAZN streaming of the fight is part of what Hearn has put in the contract, then it’s understandable why Wilder’s management haven’t agreed to the deal yet.

A lot of boxing fans believe that Hearn doesn’t want the Joshua-Wilder fight to take place in 2018 because his fighter isn’t ready yet to take on a fighter as dangerous as Wilder. If the contract is bad enough for Wilder’s team to be balking at it, then that could be a clear sign that Hearn doesn’t want the unification fight to take place in 2018 between the two heavyweight divisions. Joshua can make good money fighting Povetkin and then either Dillian Whyte or Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller. Those are winnable fights with little danger for Joshua compared to facing the 6’7” Wilder, who has the speed, power and the reach to knock him out if he connects with one of his big power shots.