Despite last weeks somewhat promising signs, a deal has not been done between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. The American WBC World heavyweight champion published two videos on social media last week and called out Joshua to which the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO World champion replied ‘let’s roll.’
Last week Wilder’s management also sent an offer worth $50 million to Team Joshua. Promoter Eddie Hearn had schedulled a meeting with Wilder’s representatives for Thursday but the two parties never met. Hearn had rescheduled a new meeting for Friday but one of the main people looking after Wilder, Shelly Finkel, refused to meet.
“I had a meeting with Shelly Finkel scheduled for Thursday, he cancelled that meeting. I requested a meeting for today (Friday) and he emailed me, while also emailing the entire press world, saying ‘there is no point in meeting it would be non-productive – we have to accept the deal first.”
Hearn believes that they have exposed Wilder’s offer as a publicity stunt and a ‘bluff.’
“It’s always nice to call someone’s bluff. What we’ve done is called their bluff here, and they won’t even meet to talk about the deal.
“It’s bizarre, but we are talking to other people as well. There’s probably about 50 people trying to make this deal at the moment. You’ve got Shelly Finkel, Al Haymon, Jay Deas and other people,” said Hearn to Sky Sports.
But the botched meetings haven’t brought up any cause for concern for Wilder.
“It will definitely happen. If Joshua and his team are smart enough, they’ll take this fight and take it soon,” told Wilder according to Sky Sports.
Hearn added that he’s never experienced anything like this in boxing in terms of negotiations.
“It’s all very bizarre. I returned the email of Deontay Wilder and said we are very interested in making this fight, please send us a draft contract.
“He replied and said ‘you have to accept the fight and then we will send you the contract’. I’ve never known anything so bizarre since I’ve worked in boxing.”
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