Deontay Wilder has hit out at Eddie Hearn as he lifted the lid on the talks towards a showdown between him and Anthony Joshua.
The former WBC heavyweight champion and the Brit, who at the time was the unified ruler in the sport’s premier division, were on a collision course to an undisputed showdown a couple of years ago.
Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) believes Hearn and Matchroom forced him to stray after not agreeing to the clash against Joshua.
Hearn had previously offered Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) a fight with Joshua when he was the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO champion and prior to his September 2018 defence against Alexander Povetkin.
Joshua has since lost those titles to former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk as well as his subsequent rematch with the Ukrainian, who has now called out Tyson Fury for an all-the-marbles showdown in the sport’s premier division.
Wilder, who has been out of the ring since being stopped a second time by current WBC king Tyson Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) in their trilogy showdown last October, is back in the ring on October 15 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
And he had a pop at the 43-year-old promoter, claiming the antics of the Brentwood-based businessman “left a bad taste in his mouth.”
‘The Bronze Bomber’, who won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics back in 2008, unleashed his rant while speaking with ES News.
He said:
“Everybody picked me to beat Joshua and that’s the reason why they didn’t want to make the fight before.
“That was the reason why they took me on a six-month rollercoaster because they did everything to avoid the fight [with me]. They did not want to fight.
“Fast forward years and now we’re seeing it [the Joshua team wanting to make the fight with Wilder]. We’ll see [if it happens] because we ain’t bullsh**ting.”
Hearn has recently expressed a desire to work with Wilder, revealing that he had made a massive offer to the American for a potential fight with former WBC world title challenger Dillian Whyte, who was last seen in the ring in April when he was stopped at Wembley Stadium inside six rounds by the aforementioned Fury, while also stating that a fight between Wilder and Joshua is still one that excites him.
Wilder has also stated his willingness to take on Oleksandr Usyk, but Fury – who has set a deadline of September 1 for the fight between him and the Ukrainian to be made after demanding a whopping £500million for the showdown – laughed off the idea, telling the American to “get to the back of the queue”.
The Alabama man added:
“I hate talking about those guys because they put a bad taste in my mouth every time. These promoters, managers and sh*t like that get in the way of big fights happening because of their greed.
“Boxing is a business and I’m here, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“I have no reason to lie in this gladiator sport but some people are choosing not to believe what I say when I tell the truth.”