The greatest challenge on Anthony Joshua’s radar after defeating Joseph Parker and claiming the third of four ‘major’ heavyweight title belts is to secure Deontay Wilder’s signature for a £100 million mega-fight.
Such a showdown, if the match can be made, would create the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis 15 years ago.
Behind the smokescreens, on the strength of Joshua’s performance against the game Samoan, neither Wilder, the brash American who is undefeated in 40 fights, with 39 knockouts, nor even the returning Tyson Fury, will be quaking in their boots.
We can expect claim and counter-claim over the next few weeks, or even months, as the vying teams for Joshua and Wilder exchange emails and barbs across the Atlantic.
The first tasteless ones came last weekend from Wilder – who missed, or chose to miss, the biggest PR opportunity of his career by reneging on his deal with Sky Sports to commentate ringside in Cardiff – with the Alabaman claiming in a radio interview that he “wanted a body” on his record at some point, and mocked Joshua’s tattoo of Africa as a fake symbol, because he “is British, not African”.
“I dread the day it happens because sometimes what you say comes to reality,” responded the 28-year-old Briton. “I just hope it doesn’t happen to someone because it’s not good for the sport. Once a life’s gone, you can’t get it back. Watch, though, after we do fight, he will shake my hand, so I don’t take the personal stuff to heart.”
On Wilder’s decision to stay away from Cardiff, Joshua commented: “I’m not disappointed he didn’t come because this wasn’t about Wilder. It was about Parker and me. Does he need me more than I need him? Yes.
“Without being big-headed, that’s 100 per cent. He needs British boxing. He’s bigger here than he is in the States because of us.”
Joshua is correct in that. While the Londoner’s last three title fights have drawn 90,000 and 80,000 twice in stadia, and each one generating upwards of £25 million, Wilder sells out 9,000 seats in Brooklyn, New York. Joshua is a sports star, Wilder is still relatively unknown outside boxing.
Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, said: “[Wilder] He’s desperate. You don’t say something like ‘I want to put somebody in a body bag’ unless you’re purely desperate. He has completely lost his head. He’s prepared to do or say anything to make the fight, other than actually make the fight.”
The reality is that his closest advisers may steer Joshua away from Wilder until next year, two more fights away, in spite of the stated intention to target for this summer. “It all depends,” said Hearn. “I will present the deal to Anthony but it has to be the right deal. It’s not just a case of ‘Anthony, take the fight’. It’s got to be right for everybody and everybody is involved in that process.”
Joshua, meanwhile, soaks up the criticism and acclaim with the same sponge, admitting that he remains “a work in progress”.
“Boxing is booming. But we have to make sure we’re ambassadors of the sport. I’m doing it in a professional manner. I’m not talking about catching a body or killing someone or about the Africa map. That’s not negotiating, that’s just talking. I’m trying to make the fight happen.”
The next few weeks the promoters, not the fighters, will be going into the trenches.
telegraph