Deontay Wilder has reportedly accepted Anthony Joshua’s offer of a 60/40 split for a fight this summer.
Wilder, who holds the WBC heavyweight belt, is ‘ready to sign and come to the UK this summer’ for the fight which will decide the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
According to The Telegraph, Wilder’s team are ready to begin negotiations right now.
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Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkel said:
We are really glad that Anthony Joshua said for the first time ‘I will fight Deontay next…’ and we believe he is a man of his word. Deontay accepts the challenge.
Wilder and his team are expected to make contact with Eddie Hearn, Barry Hearn and Matchroom Sport later this week.
Joshua immediately called out Wilder after his victory against Joseph Parker in Cardiff, where he won the WBO title to add to his IBF, WBA (Super) and IBO belts.
It’s no surprise, then, that Joshua turned his attention to Wilder, who holds the WBC belt, the only one Joshua doesn’t yet hold.
If Joshua were to defeat Wilder, it would make the Brit the first person to unify all of the current sanctioning belts in history.
Finkel said:
We want to make it public that Deontay wants the fight, and we are prepared to come over, or meet here and get the deal done. Deontay is ready to sign and come to the UK this summer.
Eddie Hearn said on Sunday that there is only a small window of opportunity before Joshua needs to defend his belts against other challenges.
In response, Finkel said:
We’re ready. Let’s do it. And anyway, unification fights always trump mandatories. A unification between Wilder and Joshua would push the mandatories back.
Assuming it will be Wembley Stadium in the summer, we are ready, and if they are ready as they say they are, we want to get it done.
We want the fight, they want the fight, the public wants the fight. There is nothing to stop it going ahead.
Talks had begun in late October last year between the two camps, in which two fights were discussed, one in the UK and one in the US.
However, the talks stalled, and communication between the two camps broke down.
Barry Hearn, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, said:
[Wilder] is a fight Anthony Joshua really wants and I think he wants it this year. Joshua wants all the belts – that is the big card Deontay Wilder has got to play [but] commercially, Joshua is far bigger than Deontay Wilder.
I think Wilder would come over here [the UK] because in the world we live in, in boxing, the couple of million dollars Wilder is getting for a fight is pretty small fry in comparison to the rewards that await him for a Joshua fight. I think negotiations will start next week.
There have been rumblings from Eddie Hearn himself that the Wilder camp haven’t approached Joshua’s team, but Finkel insists that is not the case.
It looks like the hype train is leaving the station for this one, so let’s buckle up!
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