EDDIE’S WILD ABOUT WILDER
Hearn wants to snap up Bronze Bomber for a £100M superfight
EDDIE HEARN wants to sign Deontay Wilder in the first step towards a £100million showdown with Anthony Joshua.
Wilder is a free agent and Hearn is preparing an offer to the unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion to become his promoter.
Hearn is willing to double Wilder’s best-ever purse for a fight with Dillian Whyte to set up a clash with Joshua later this year, possibly in Las Vegas.
“Yeah, I’d definitely like to sign Deontay Wilder,” said the Matchroom boss. “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? We’ve got a foot in with American partners, we work with everybody, we’ve got a massive fight lined up with Dillian Whyte.
“I could pay him probably double his highest-ever purse to face Whyte then I could set up the Joshua fight very easily. Why wouldn’t you do that?”
Hearn had hoped Wilder would be ringside on Saturday for Joshua’s unification clash with WBO title holder Joseph Parker, but it looks increasingly unlikely the American will come to Cardiff.
WBA Super and IBF king Joshua was unhappy with Wilder’s insistence he should come into the ring at the end to challenge the winner to face him for the undisputed world heavyweight title.
Instead, Wilder, who has 39 stoppages from his perfect 40-0 record, is likely to watch the fight Stateside and is adamant he will be the division’s kingpin regardless of who wins. “I’ve been saying it for years – I’m the best in the division, which I proved to the haters against Luis Ortiz,” said the Bronze Bomber (above). “I love proving people wrong and I’ll do it time and time again. Us Americans choose 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.”
Hearn (left) may have to revise his offer to Wilder, who insists he only wants to fight Joshua, rather than Whyte.
Wilder, 32, said: “A king doesn’t chase a peasant. I want Joshua, not Whyte. If they don’t give me that fight, I have other plans. Why should I go to England and fight a peasant?
“If AJ beats Parker there’s no more waiting. The fans want it, I want it. I will go anywhere in the world. I was about to go to Russia, so I’ll go to England.
“It’s good to make money, but you can’t keep sitting around just fighting these other guys. We have the chance to put it all on the line.
“Eddie and AJ – don’t wait, make the date! No more ducking, no more dodging. Let’s see who’s the best, are you up to the test?”