By Chris McKenna, courtesy of The Daily Star
EDDIE HEARN wants to sign Deontay Wilder to his Matchroom stable to help clear the path for a ￡100m fight with Anthony Joshua.
The Essex-based promoter has already started to put on shows in America and now he is looking to land their big-name heavyweight.
But the move would also help negotiations for a fight between WBA, IBO and IBF champion Joshua and the WBC titleholder.
While Hearn could also get the American to face Dillian Whyte first to help build a future Las Vegas showdown between Joshua and Wilder.
He said: “I think that’s a real possibility. If I was Deontay Wilder, how could I not think that signing with us was a good idea?
“I could pay him probably double his highest ever purse to face Whyte and then I could set up the Joshua fight very easily. Why wouldn’t you do that?”
Joshua could pocket around ￡35m for a clash with Wilder in Las Vegas in a fight Hearn reckons would eclipse Lennox Lewis’ mammoth meeting with Mike Tyson in 2002.
Hearn says they are not a “million miles” away from doing a deal for the Joshua fight next anyways but he is furious with Wilder for not travelling to Cardiff this weekend.
Wilder has decided not to come after the British Boxing Board of Control blocked him from getting in the ring after Joshua’s clash with WBO champion Parker.
The BBBofC do not want Saturday night’s fight in Cardiff to be overshadowed by ugly scenes in the aftermath, especially after the recent death of Scott Westgarth in the ring.
Hearn still wanted Wilder ringside to work for Sky Sports to help build their potential fight further.
But the American said: “Eddie Hearn is scared. I see it in his mannerisms whenever I’m bought up. I’ve been calling him out for years, they don’t want it.
“I love proving people wrong and I’ll do it time and time again. Us Americans chose our own path, I do what I want to do.
“I’m too athletic, I’m too hostile, I punch too hard. No other Heavyweight has the agility I have. I move like a middleweight.
“I’m very confident in what I do in the ring. There’s no man that I have stood in front of that I haven’t knocked out.
“I am the one that ends all of their plans. I’m too dangerous for them. He needs to step up and make this fight happen.”
2023-10-20 17:25:03
