Former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is due to fight on the same December 23 card in Saudi Arabia as Anthony Joshua but not against one another as had been hoped. Briton Joshua will fight Otto Wallin and Wilder will take on Joseph Parker.
Asked by Mail Sport why he is not fighting Joshua next, Wilder said: ‘He asked for $50million (£40m) and we provided that for him and he did not take it.
‘And the only way you can disregard that is to make a mockery of it, try to make a joke of it, try to make it seem to the public that it’s not real.’
Wilder, however, does not solely blame Joshua for the fight not being made yet. Rather he pointed the finger at Joshua’s promoters Matchroom. ‘It’s a deflection,’ he said.
‘It’s an ‘oh s*** moment’. They came up with $50m. That’s why they don’t have Joshua speaking a lot on his own behalf and if he does speak he always slips up and says things that are not appealing to his people. And they have to play clean up.
‘It’s his management that have held him back from fighting me because, you know, he’s a fighter. It’s been over six years (waiting for the fight to be made). But there comes a point in time we’re you’re like, ‘Forget it’.
‘Many times he wanted to fight, he wanted to accept it but his handlers didn’t want it because Joshua is the money-maker for the company. And if he goes down, so does the business.’
Wilder’s gripes aside, there are still hopes that he and Joshua could face off next year if both come through their December fights unscathed.
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