I’ll fight them all: Joshua
WORLD heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is still eyeing a showdown with Deontay Wilder but proclaimed he would fight anyone who comes his way after a technical knockout victory over Alexander Povetkin in yesterday.
The 28-year-old Briton, who holds the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts, has been in talks about a fight with WBC title holder Wilder which would give him a shot at becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
Negotiations broke down, however, and before Joshua’s bout yesterday, American Wilder announced a fight with Britain’s Tyson Fury in the United States on Dec 1.
With Joshua locked in to stage another fight at London’s Wembley Stadium on April 13 next year, Wilder’s December bout casts doubt on who might provide the opposition.
Joshua, full of confidence after his devastating seventh round stoppage of the fierce-hitting veteran Russian which took him to 22 fights unbeaten, said Wilder was still his preferred choice.
“Yes (want to face Wilder), we’ve been negotiating with their team since the (Carlos) Takam fight ... But if Wilder’s not serious, there’s other people out there,” he said. “No problem. I’ll fight all of them.” Speaking from inside the ring immediately following his victory on a damp evening in London, Joshua had put the name of his future opponent out to the crowd.
“Tonight is out of the way, let’s figure out what’s happening on April 13,” he said.
“Providing there’s no (mandatory) challenger, we’re going to put out a Twitter vote.”
“Who do we want to fight?” Joshua asked, with a majority of the 80,000-strong crowd responding by nominating Wilder.
“Anyone is welcome. The sport is about what the fans want,” he added. – Reuters