Joshua keeps mum on Wilder fight, focuses on Parker
IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua says WBC champion Deontay Wilder is welcome to attend his March 31 fight against WBO champion Joseph Parker, but he’s not all that interested in hyping their fight afterwards.
Joshua sees it as a waste of time to begin getting boxing fans interested in his unification fight with Deontay until the fight is signed. Until then, Joshua has no interest in using the spotlight of his fight with Parker to go into theatrics with the 6’7” Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) inside the ring at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Joshua’s approach to not wanting to hype the Wilder fight on March 31 might not make his promoter Eddie Hearn happy, because they need to take advantage of the huge amount of boxing fans that will be watching the fight. There’s no better opportunity to start selling the Joshua-Wilder fight than immediately after the Parker fight is done on March 31. Joshua says he wants to be considered the best fighter in the heavyweight division, but to be that person, you need to be able to sell yourself and your fights.
“With Wilder, I’m just not into the hype. If he wants to come over, get in the ring and all that stuff – I just prefer it if he had a fight in place to talk about, because if not, it’s just hype,” Joshua said to skysports.com.
“Yes, he’s more than welcome, but the difference is – when Klitschko come over to watch me in Manchester, we had signed a deal. It was signed and sealed, provided I won,” Joshua said about Wilder.
The negotiations for the Joshua-Wilder fight have been crawling. Hearn doesn’t want to give Wilder a 50-50 deal in terms of the purse split for the fight, and it doesn’t look like Wilder’s 40 percent offer is a small enough cut for him to get the fight.
Wilder said recently that he’ll take 40 percent of the loot for the Joshua fight if the same deal is done in reverse for the rematch.
