Heavyweights say they want big fight
CARDIFF, Wales — In the bowels of Cardiff ’s Principality Stadium, Anthony Joshua sat with his four world heavyweight belts and called on Deontay Wilder to get serious about negotiations for a unification fight.
Across the Atlantic, Wilder posted a video on Twitter, shouting into his phone: “Joshua? Joshua? Stop playing, and pick up the phone!”
Team Joshua wants it. Team Wilder wants it. Boxing fans want it. But will it happen?
The path was cleared for a fight between them when Joshua beat Joseph Parker in a unanimous decision in front of 78,000 in Cardiff on Saturday. Joshua added Parker’s WBO belt to his own WBA, IBF and IBO straps.
Joshua paraded them in the ring. He displayed them in front of the world’s media. But he knows there’s one missing to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000: Wilder’s WBC belt.
“I will get all five of the belts,” Joshua said. “It’s not an issue.”
Yet, he knows time is not on his side. And so does his promoter, Eddie Hearn.
Being a multiple champion brings with it mandatory fights. There’s only a small window for Joshua to clean up the division before the belts start getting stripped off him.
“I think it has to happen in 2018,” Hearn said of the Wilder fight, “otherwise we are going to hit some major problems with the politics and the mandatories. It’s just a case of if it happens next or if we fight (someone else) in the summer and then Wilder.
“If they stepped up and were actually serious about the fight and serious about a deal, we are more than happy to offer them. It could happen next. But they are so erratic and unpredictable, I don’t know what to believe.”