When we started the New Year, it wasn’t clear out the heavyweight boxing scene would take shape as the top thee boxers all wanted to fight each other. Things are a lot clearer now and the role reversal that British heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has had to face has been a slap in the face to him.
Just over a year ago, Anthony Joshua was the biggest thing that was in heavyweight boxing and rightly so given the fact that Joshua holds three out of the four top boxing championships. American Deontay Wilder did try to get a fight with Joshua but that did not happen.
Wilder and Joshua could not agree to a deal which both could sign off on and Joshua was then forced to fight other opponents which frustrated Wilder who wanted to claim the tag of being the ‘best heavyweight fighter on the planet’.
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Wilder went on to fight another Brit in Tyson Fury on December 1 which turned out to be one of the greatest heavyweight fights in the history of the sport and fittingly ended in a draw. The two fighters agreed after the fight that they needed to do a second fight in order to decide who was the winner!
Deontay Wilder has now confirmed that even though Anthony Joshua wants to fight him next, he will not accept the fight as he wants the rematch with Tyson Fury. Wilder has confirmed that his side is 100 percent good with the rematch and it is now up to the Fury camp to sign the agreement and fix on a venue and date.
The fact that Wilder turned down a fight after campaigning so hard, has got to sting for Joshua. He knows that he is a super-star in the United Kingdom but does not have a lot of fans in the United States.
Joshua was expecting his next fight to take place on 13 April in Wembley but that will be cancelled. Since Wilder and Fury will most likely rematch, Joshua has to find a new opponent.
His manager Eddie Hearn has confirmed that Joshua will travel to America for his next fight. The Brit is expected to fight at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York for the first time and will take on Jarrell Miller.