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By Peter Akinbo.
Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has said that a fight with Anthony Joshua is close to being finalised.
Representatives for Saudi Arabia’s Skill Challenge Entertainment have confirmed that they are in talks to stage a mega event that would feature Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk and Joshua vs Wilder on the same night in December.
Wilder and Joshua have been linked to each other for years and the pair engaged in talks in 2018 and 2019, but a public back-and-forth feud broke out between their representatives and the match-up appeared to be dead in the water, until recently.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn and Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkel have repaired their relationship and are now open to making a big money fight in Saudi Arabia later this year.
“We got a lot of different options right now at this moment in time. Joshua, everybody. I think a lot of people is going to get that dream fight everyone wants to see,” Wilder told iFL TV.
The 37-year-old is not of the opinion that the fight against the two-time heavyweight champion will be an easy bout and sent a message to the British-Nigerian ahead of their long-awaited meeting.
“Nobody is an easy night. Nobody is easy because, on the night of the fight, you just never know what they might have in them that night. It might be like ‘I feel great!’
“Stay training, man, stay focused and I wish you nothing but the best,” Wilder said.
Wilder and Joshua are trying to work their way back into title contention. The American knocked out Robert Helenius last October to get back in the win column after suffering consecutive stoppage defeats at the hands of Fury.
Joshua also had successive defeats when he faced Usyk but has since got a win over Jermaine Franklin and is now looking to add more big names to his already impressive CV.
