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For Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua is as synthetic as it gets. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
The former WBC heavyweight champion from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, suggested in a recent interview that he believes Joshua’s career achievements from London have been largely fabricated, saying, in essence, that there is more hype than substance to the Joshua’s name. In the interview, Wilder repeatedly said that Joshua’s sponsors “had given him everything.”
Wilder no doubt pointed out that his criticism is not rooted in any personal animosity toward Joshua. However, he apparently feels that Joshua’s latest loss to WBO, WBA and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk is in some sense a test of Joshua’s shallow talents. Joshua lost a decision to Usyk in their unified heavyweight title rematch last month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
When asked to comment on what went wrong with the British heavyweight, Wilder offered a withering diagnosis.
“You guys are going to get me straight, man,” Wilder told Brian Custer on The Last Stand Podcast. “The things I’ve been saying before, a lot of things I’ve been saying before. They made Anthony Joshua. They did it. This has nothing to do with – ‘oh, he doesn’t like it’ – nah, it’s not that, you know what I’m saying? I don’t like it in a business sense. As a person, Anthony Joshua as a man, as a person, I have nothing to dislike as a person, but as a businessman, in this business? I don’t like it at all. I don’t like that business antics and how they do business because this is a gladiatorial business. Once again, personally, I have nothing against him. Personally, I don’t know him as a man.
“As far as business is concerned, I don’t care about anything for him. But they did. From the Olympic Games to the professional rankings. You know it. Business are business. We were born to do it. I didn’t make it. For me many people agree that they gave him, even with the Olympics they gave him that medal. With these belts, they bought a lot of these belts. There is nothing wrong with that because a lot of people buy certain positions, certain things, whatever. So if you have the money or whatever, go for it. But I think the way they move him and prepare him for certain moments that he wasn’t prepared for.”
Wilder has had a contentious relationship with Joshua’s handlers, most notably his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. Hearn has gone back and forth with Wilder and Wilder’s manager, Shelly Finkel, on numerous occasions, but especially in 2018 and 2019, when it seemed like a fight between Joshua and Wilder seemed like a distinct possibility.
Most recently, Wilder and Hearn have been exchanging words through the press after it was revealed that Hearn tried to contact Finkel to discuss a fight between Joshua and Wilder yet again. Wilder, however, ridiculed Hearn for the alleged offer because it was extended while Joshua was still preparing for the Usyk rematch. Finkel, for his part, has finally told a news outlet that he is open to a fight between Joshua and Wilder. Wilder, of course, currently has his own businesses to run. He is set to end a nearly year-long layoff when he takes on Robert Helenius on October 15 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Wilder suggested to Custer that he thinks Joshua hasn’t been properly guided.
“A lot of things that he (Joshua) didn’t understand or whatever, being that they were his handlers, and he trusted them mainly because they were making him money,” Wilder said. “They were [saying] ‘all you have to do is this and I’ll get you that’ and the like. So that’s just my strong opinion. It could be different, but that’s just my opinion. I feel like they gave him everything. Although he had to fight and things like that, of course he had to fight, but they made that man. They gave him everything… that’s my opinion on it.
“I think they created him, they did it and they gave him a lot of things and they promoted him. They have made false promotions. He once sold faster than Michael Jackson. We can’t believe that shit, man. Things like that. It sold out faster than Michael Jackson! …No matter how many, you don’t have enough countrymen and women…to sell you faster than Michael Jackson. Rest in peace Mike, I’ve got your back.”
