Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder: What is going on?

He looked lost in his only appearance in the States.
Dillian questioned if they were stricter with the TUE’s .....

 

That doesn’t answer my question.

What other options do you see?

 

Joshua v Bakole at the O2 would do for me.

Very good fight for both men, at the right time for both and a very good test.

 

Joshua fighting anyone outside of Wilder would be an underwhelming opponent and wouldn’t be PPV worthy off the top of my head after the Whyte fight fell through.

Bakole signed to Boxxer and refused the rematch with Michael Hunter. Billy Nelson said this is because they have something “big” planned. Let’s see if Bakole gets a meaningful fight.

A lot of people here are saying Joshua and his team don’t want the fight. We haven’t heard anything from Wilder and his team so we can’t say that. I think the Saudis don’t want it to take place in January for the money initially proposed, so I expect Joshua and Wilder to have one more fight before facing off.

It would be fantastic to see Joshua return for his 3rd fight in less than 9 months all in the UK. He’d be the most active top-level heavyweight.

I don’t really mind Bakole as an opponent but there are lots of other options available like Wallin and Ajagba.

People forget that Joshua knocked Ruiz Jr down first before getting caught and then capitulating. Any talk about the commission being stricter with drugs etc is just BS.

 

The Joshua v Bakole fight would excite the boxing fans as we know Bakole will have a real go.

One of those fights where questions hanging over both fighters will be answered and I think it would be a very good fight to watch.

 

Let’s just have the Ruiz trilogy fook it.

 

He’s turned down Fury twice in 9 months, lost to Usyk twice, not fought Wilder in 7 years and got KO’d by Ruiz.
“I’m a Celebrity”??

 

Wilder has never wanted this fight he turned down 100m last time around.

AJ will fight anyone

 

Despite turning down the Fury fight twice in the past 9 months, people still come out with this nonsense.

 

Funny how everyone turns down Fury. AJ. Usyk.

He set an artificial deadline with AJ while already had Chisora lined up. Spins the AJ ducking narrative and it’s lapped up.

Give your head a wobble

 

He fought three live opponent in ten year, and he lost two of them. He was forced in to Usyk contest by mandatory. Also Klitschko was finished. Bull****. He face Franklin and Helenius and he will fight anybody. Good joke.

 

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Those who wanted to blame Joshua and Hearn must be in tears. If they were ducking we would be hearing outrage from Wilder and Finkel. Hopefully this fight gets made, but if not, it's important for Joshua to return, which will be on December 23.

 

Can already tell what’s going to happen…

Joshua will fight some no-hoper on DAZN ‘as part of your subscription’ in December. Drama Show will remind us all that Fury fought Schwarz on PPV almost 5 years ago and it’s amazing that Joshua is fighting on non-PPV. Hearn says it’s his last fight before jumping into a mega one but the mega one never materialises.

Rinse and repeat for 2 years.

 

It's easy to say this now and I'll accept being called an "after-timer" - but it's always seemed to me like neither party was particularly desperate for this fight other than the Saudi cash. Neither side is ducking but they wouldn't easily stage the fight otherwise.

Do you think if Matchroom offered to stick this on at the Millennium in (say) February instead then Wilder's side would take it? It'd be less money but still more than Wilder would make anywhere else. That would be my move if I was Hearn and find out who actually wants it. Maybe the other side would offer to run it in Vegas.

 

I don't think that will happen. Both fighters have seen the money on offer from Saudi so I doubt they'd accept less money to fight elsewhere. As much as I would like to see Joshua and Wilder fight, they both don't hold World Titles and are following different avenues. Wilder has been inactive and didn't fight Ruiz for some reason even though it was an in-house fight, whilst Joshua seems to want to fight all the time and improve his craft in the ring. I'm intrigued to see who Joshua fights in December which looks like the likeliest outcome.