Unified World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has been issued an ultimatum by the WBA, with the governing body stating that the British superstar must face mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin or be stripped of his WBA ‘Super’ World title.
Joshua, who has been embroiled in a very public back-and-forth with WBC champion Deontay Wilder in recent months, has been given a 24 hour deadline to sign to face the 39-year old Russian – putting any proposed undisputed title bout with Wilder on hold, for now at least.
After initially granting Joshua and promoter Eddie Hearn an additional month to force a deal through to face Wilder, WBA president Gilberto Mendoza has seemingly grown tired of the lack of progress in negotiations, issuing the deadline today.
“Today the WBA requested an answer from Anthony Joshua’s team regarding his fight with the mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin.” said Mendoza.
“The WBA have allowed over a month extension to negotiations with Povetkin and also ongoing discussions with Deontay Wilder.
“It appears the Wilder team have not returned the contract for the fight and therefore we are requesting a date for the Joshua versus Povetkin fight with immediate effect.”
The latest development in the Joshua-Wilder saga looks to be a hammer blow to any likelihood of the bout happening in 2018, with Matchroom supremo Eddie Hearn telling Boxing Social that the mouth-watering heavyweight blockbuster would more-than-likely be pushed to 2019 should the Povetkin bout come next for ‘AJ’.