ANTHONY JOSHUA INSISTS he is “willing to fight” Deontay Wilder at Wembley Stadium next April.
Negotiations between WBA, IBF and WBO champion Joshua (22-0) and WBC belt-holder Wilder (40-0-1) broke down earlier this year and the American instead faced Tyson Fury at the start of December, battling to a contentious draw.
The WBC has sanctioned a rematch between Wilder and Fury, but Joshua is again keen to do a deal with Wilder and claims he could not be doing more to make it happen.
Joshua is booked in for a fight in London on 13 April and took to ESPN on Thursday to make his case for the money-spinning bout to happen on that date, adding that his preference is to face Wilder, not Fury, as he aims to collect the final strap.
I’m willing to fight Deontay Wilder, 13 April in London,” Joshua said. “I don’t know what more I have to do to get that message across.
“He’s more interested in fighting Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury holds no world titles. I can’t control what Deontay Wilder does, I can’t control what Tyson Fury does, or what they say, but what I can do is control what I say and what I’m doing.
“I made sure, with the negotiations, I had booked the date in advance, I had set the venue in advance. I’m making my point clear in front of anyone watching.
“I’m willing to fight any of these guys – especially the champion, Deontay Wilder, 13 April at Wembley. What more can I say?
I’m not interested in Tyson Fury, because he’s not the champion. That lineal status… When I was joining the heavyweight ranks, nobody told me about lineal champion.
“I knew about WBC, IBO, IBF, WBA and WBO. I’ve got my hands on four of them.”
Murray Kinsella, Gavan Casey and Eddie O’Sullivan preview another big weekend of Heineken Cup action and dissect the week’s main talking points.
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