By: Sean Crose
“The fight is dead.”
With those few words, promoter Eddie Hearn put an end to any doubt about whether or not his fighter, former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, would face former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in the near future. The truth was that the two oversized heavies were supposed to be presented this year in Saudi Arabia. However, Wilder was surprised in late December by another former heavyweight champion, Joseph Parker. Perhaps if Wilder had looked better than he did against Parker, a fight with Joshua could still be a possibility. However, the hard-hitting American’s performance was so lackluster that Joshua and Hearn cannot be blamed for losing interest in the fight.
“The numbers don’t work right now because Wilder has a broken flush at the moment,” Hearn told IFL TV. “It’s a mismatch, AJ against him right now.” Hearn then went on to indicate that he never thought that highly of Wilder as a fighter. “He hasn’t beaten anyone,” said the Matchroom Boxing boss. “He’s not in AJ’s league…he was delighted for Joseph Parker, but he unfortunately had the opportunity to do what we would have done.” And where does Joshua’s team intend to go now that the long-awaited fight with Wilder has failed? “At the moment we have three fights that we are in talks about,” Hearn said. “They’re all big.” Ultimately, however, Hearn wants Joshua to return to the top of heavyweight. “Our goal… is to fight the winner of (Tyson) Fury-(Oleksandr) Usyk,” Hearn said. “That’s all we want to do.”
This, of course, would not be an easy task. After all, Usyk has comfortably beaten Joshua twice. Now that he is set to fight Fury next month for the undisputed world heavyweight championship, a rematch will most likely be necessary. That means it would likely be some time before Joshua could get either man into the ring. It’s not that Hearn or Joshua are discouraged. “What AJ wants to do is be in massive fights,” Hearn said, “win the world heavyweight title and fight Tyson Fury or get another shot at Usyk.” Frankly, Hearn has good reason to feel confident. After going through a rough patch, Joshua looked extremely impressive when he recently fought Otto Wallin on the same card that Wilder lost to Parker. In fact, Joshua finished off his man in the fifth, when Wallin’s corner stopped the fight in what Hearn called Joshua’s “best performance.”
For Hearn now it’s all about maintaining momentum. “We just have to keep winning,” she said. “If Fury beats Usyk, AJ against Fury is absolutely colossal, colossal.”
