Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that Anthony Joshua will sign a contract to face WBC World heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in an undisputed heavyweight showdown at Wembley Stadium in April 2019.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Hearn revealed that WBA/WBO/IBF champion Joshua would be willing to sign the contract before submitting the offer to Wilder and his team.
“I’m pretty confident [of the fight happening]” said Hearn.
“”I think at the moment he’s [Wilder] throwing his toys out of the pram, and eventually we hope he’ll come to his senses.”
Hearn would go on to state that while Wilder and his representatives have had the contract “for over a month”, the British star would effectively take the lead in forcing though negotiations for the blockbuster showdown by signing on the dotted line.
“I spoke to Anthony yesterday and I think what we’re going to do is all the terms that were agreed by Deontay Wilder have now been put into the contract.”
“They’ve had them now for over a month, and they haven’t done anything, so I think what we’re going to do, we’re going to sign the contract.” Hearn continued.
“Anthony Joshua says let’s sign the contract and put it in front of them, rather than them thinking that we’re bluffing for some bizarre reason, or we don’t want the fight.”
With Joshua widely expected to announce a deal to face Russian WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin in the next few days, Hearn remains adamant that a bout with Wilder or all of the belts – the first of its kind in heavyweight history – remains top on their list of priorities.
“Anthony’s going to have a press conference for his next fight next week and he’ll be in America as well, and it will be good to go out there and say we’ve done all we can.”
“You’ve agreed these terms, we’ve now even signed the contract, so fingers crossed, April 13 at Wembley will be Joshua against Wilder.” he finished.
The comments from Hearn are the latest in a series of very public negotiations between representatives of the two camps. Following the most recent breakdown in talks, WBC king Wilder declared he had put to bed any hopes of facing the British superstar.
It remains to be seen whether the latest move from Team Joshua will tempt him into reconsidering…