Deontay Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkel has kept the door open for a mega fight between his charge and Anthony Joshua – and predicts a meeting between the two still does mammoth numbers.
Speaking to Sun Sport, Finkel said that, despite not having the best relationship with AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn, that he and the rest of Wilder’s team would be willing to enter discussions for the fight.
“We said at the press conference it depends on what surfaces this week, whether it be Oleksandr Usyk, or Hearn reaching out.
I said I would talk to him, but after the Helenius fight, because that is when it makes sense, this is what the reality is. I always said that there was no reason to have spoken before the fight, but we’re always willing to talk to him.”
The two camps were in long, drawn out discussions for what would have been an undisputed fight in 2017. However, the talks collapsed and things became frayed between the teams in the public eye.
Finkel, though, is willing to put the past in the past if the deal is right, and although he thinks Joshua’s options are now limited, he believes a fight between Wilder and AJ would still pack out Wembley Stadium if held in the UK.
“I was asked if they offered the right deal, would we do the fight in the UK? Of course. Financially, it could be Saudi Arabia or another country, but it really comes down to them.
“I believe Deontay and Joshua will do 80,000 at Wembley. Two or three years ago, when Joshua and us did not make the fight, he had options and was on top of the world. Right now, he doesn’t have many options.”
In this golden era for the blue-ribbon division, a matchup between Wilder and AJ is arguably the most exciting, with a knockout one way or another seemingly inevitable.
Let’s hope the two teams can let bygones be bygones for the good of the fans.