Wilder Manager Open to Negotiations for Joshua, Usyk Fights

Shelly Finkel, the manager of former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, insists he is all ears for making a fight between his protégé and Anthony Joshua. (photo by Ryan Hafey)

Finkel recently acknowledged that Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, had contacted him via email to discuss a possible fight between the two high-profile heavyweights ahead of Joshua’s rematch with unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. last month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. But Finkel said he didn’t confirm the receipt at the time because Wilder had already signed a contract to face Robert Helenius on Oct. 15 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Finkel said he consulted with Wilder and Wilder’s adviser, Al Haymon of Premier Boxing Champions, about the offer and they all decided it was premature to discuss it before Wilder’s Oct. 15 fight.

Finkel said he would be willing to discuss a Wilder-Joshua fight after that date.

“We have a fight with Robert Helenius,” Finkel told talkSPORT. “Eddie emailed me, ‘Can we talk? I have some big ones [offer] for Deontay.’”

“Right now we have the Helenius fight, that’s all we need to focus on. Because if something went wrong there, nothing else would go wrong. And if it works out, everything will work out.”

Wilder and Joshua have been involved in talks before, in 2018 and 2019, but their efforts were unsuccessful and relations soured. Hearn and Finkel clashed repeatedly through the press.

However, Finkel said he would not let personal feelings get in the way of negotiating with Hearn. Finkel noted that he successfully dealt with Hearn when Finkel’s charge, Wladimir Klitschko, fought Joshua in 2017; Joshua won via eleventh-round TKO.

“No, I don’t always agree with him, we’re on opposite sides, he’s got a fighter who hopefully is an opponent for one of my guys, in this case Deontay, and it’s nothing like that,” Finkel said. .

“And the Eddie thing, look, he hasn’t been around as long as he thinks, but he’s done some really good and exciting stuff, so I give him credit for that,” Finkel added.

Finkel also confirmed that he would be open to a fight between Wilder and IBF, WBO, IBO and WBA heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. The Ukrainian recently said that he wanted to fight Wilder, as his original top choice, WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, appears to be headed for a fight with Joshua by the end of the year.

“The other day we got a message that Usyk will fight us if Joshua goes the Fury route, yes we are open to that, we are not opposed to that at all,” Finkel said.