AJ golden goose of the ring
DEONTAY WILDER has to accept that Anthony Joshua is the ‘golden goose’ of heavyweight boxing in negotiations for their unification showdown.
That’s according to Kevin Barry, the man who trained former WBO world champion Joseph Parker for his clash against Joshua in March and who is now readying him to face Dillian Whyte at London’s O2 Arena in a fortnight.
Joshua will face Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium on September 22 and, in a bold move, promoter Eddie Hearn has already booked the venue for his next fight in April 2019.
The hope is it will make WBC world champion Wilder realise Joshua has other options if he does not want to come to the UK to fight for his IBF, WBA and WBO belts.
If Wilder will not make the concessions needed and agree terms on what would be his biggest-ever pay-day, then the winner of Parker versus Whyte on July 28 will hope to get a second shot at Joshua in another money-spinning battle at the national stadium in April.
Barry said: “Last year, I went on record to say that I didn’t think Joshua and Wilder would fight in 2018 and now we are talking about them fighting in the first quarter of next year.
“The fact that Eddie Hearn has now got the next two fights at Wembley has really given him the upper hand in those negotiations.
“Joshua is the golden goose at the moment.
“He is the guy who attracts all the money and with the money comes all the power.”