Wilder: AJ so jealous
DEONTAY WILDER taunted Anthony Joshua by claiming he will be jealous when he watches his Las Vegas showdown with Tyson Fury.
Fury also insisted that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn won’t be able to handle not being involved in the “biggest fight in the world”.
Former heavyweight champion Fury will face WBC title holder Wilder this November in a clash worth more than £30m.
Wilder said: “They’re envious. It feels good. Even when the fight was announced they were already sceptical about it. They didn’t think it was going to happen.” And Fury added: “The biggest fight in the world is going to happen and Eddie Hearn is not going to have any part of it.
“I don’t think he can handle that. I think he is going to chuck his dummy out of the pram.” WBA, WBO
and IBF king Joshua failed to agree a deal for a unification fight with Wilder this year and fights Alexander Povetkin next month instead.
There has been talk of the pair facing each other next April at Wembley if Wilder beats Fury, but the American thinks Joshua has already made other plans.
He said: “Tyson felt sorry – he felt sorry that people were laughing at the UK, and they are. They are because of the big facade that they have built around Joshua.
“Then for him to let people down in that way, and not fight the best, it really put a sour taste in people’s mouths. Especially in America.
Protected
“It has really damaged his name. Not his career yet, because he still has the opportunity to turn it around, but his name they have damaged that. He looks like a protected fighter.”
Wilder wasn’t planning on crashing Fury’s weigh-in ahead of his fight with Francesco Pianeta on Friday but changed his mind when he landed in Belfast.
The pair then clashed in the hotel reception before Wilder was involved in a bizarre row with Fury’s mate and WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in a Nandos restaurant.
It may be all pantomime but it has added to the interest in the fight which will take place on November 10 or 17 after they confirmed it in the ring following Fury’s win over Pianeta. Wilder added: “I think this is a much bigger fight than the Joshua fight if you ask me.”