Hearn says Joshua won’t shorten preparation time for Wilder fight

By Scott Gilfoid: A nervous sounding Eddie Hearn says he’s not going to let Anthony Joshua face Deontay Wilder with just an 8-week training camp. Hearn wants Joshua to have more than eight weeks to prepare for the unification fight against unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs). Hearn believes that Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) is the best fighter in the heavyweight division, but he still feels that he needs more than 8 weeks to get ready for Wilder.

The fight figures to be a rockem sockem robots type of affair with both guys standing in the center of the ring and trading huge blows. I don’t think more is better when it comes to training for a fight against Wilder. If anything, Joshua might end up hurting himself by over-training. The fight is going to ultimately come down to which guy can land their best shot first.

If Wilder connects with a right hand on the chin of Joshua in the 1st round, it’ll be all over, because he’s not going to have mercy on him like Wladimir Klitschko did last year April at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wilder also isn’t going to get a crazy idea of trying to box his way to a 12 round decision after he hurts Joshua like Klitschko did.

The contract has been sent to Wilder’s management for them to look over. They want the fight, but they’re obviously not going to rush signing until they’ve read the contract fully. That’s not the way Wilder’s team works. They want to make sure it’s a fair contract and not one that has anything that they object to in fine print. If the fight doesn’t happen, it won’t be because Wilder and his team didn’t it. The talented 6’7” Wilder has been calling Joshua out for the last two years, and has had no luck in getting him and Hearn to show any interest until now.

Joshua, 28, wants everything stacked in his favor in terms of the purse and home country advantage. There’s obviously some worry on Joshua and Hearn’s part. If Joshua loses to Wilder, then the cash flow may dry up from the money he’s been making on Sky Box Office PPV. Unless the boxing fans are going to want to keep paying to see Joshua after he loses to Wilder, he could be on skid row after the fight, no longer the money man in England. I hate to say it but someone else might take over Joshua’s spot in the UK as the top money maker if he gets knocked cold by Wilder.

”Everything that he’s built towards, his whole professional career, maybe his whole boxing career is built towards this moment,” Hearn said to skysports.com about Joshua in his fight against Wilder. “I’m not letting Anthony Joshua fight this fight with an eight-week camp, because this is everything, this fight.”

It sounds like Hearn is getting cold feet about letting his gravy train fighter Joshua fight Wilder. I smell fear from Hearn. That’s alright though. Joshua can always defend against his World Boxing Association mandatory Alexander Povetkin. That’s a fight that Joshua should be able to win without any problems, as long as he can keep the 6’2” Povetkin trapped on the outside and unable to get close enough to land his power shots. Joshua seems to have adopted the old fighting style of Wladimir Klitschko with the way that he’s jabbing more, moving and tying up his opponents. I think this was a move done by Joshua to help him avoid gassing out like he he’d been doing in his fights against Klitschko, Carlos Takam and Dillian Whyte.

“We’re not just going to go ‘oh yeah, let’s just dive in and do it on a date that doesn’t give us the best prep time,” Hearn said.