Anthony Joshua Still Open to a Fight with Deontay Wilder
Despite fighting on the same card, against different opposition, heavyweight fighters Anthony “AJ” Joshua (27-3, 24 KO’s) and Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KO’s) had an agreement to fight each other. Their contract was contingent on both men prevailing in their last duel. When all was said and done however, Joshua took care of business against Otto Wallin, while Wilder dropped a near shutout loss to Joseph Parker.
Rather than trashing the idea of a showdown with the recently defeated Wilder, AJ demonstrated grace and optimism about a clash in the future.
“For me, I always understand how this game is. You never know, this is elite level boxing. The Day of Reckoning was an amazing card, Wilder just came up short, but he’ll live to fight another day. Me and him can still get it on, we can still get it cracking! I believe I’m a massive threat, I still think Wilder is a threat and I still think it does amazing numbers, if we get it on. But, I’ll leave that down to my management, trainers, promoters to make the decision. I’m down to fight anyone, whenever and whoever.”
OPTIONS ARE PLENTIFUL
While Joshua certainly left the door for business open, AJ in no way indicated that the bout with Wilder was important to him. Nor did he give the impression that it was something he wanted to get done in any kind of timely manner. Instead, he passed the buck to his management team. Given that a duel between Wilder and Joshua has not been pieced together in the past five years, there is no reason to believe it’ll be coming down the pipe anytime soon.
Ranked #1 (WBO), #2 (WBC), #3 (IBF) and #3 (WBA), Joshua is in prime position to pen interesting bouts with Jared Anderson, Joseph Parker, Frank Sanchez and interim WBO heavyweight champion Zhilei Zhang. This is all said to say, Joshua is anything but hurting for a fight with Wilder. Due to his plethora of potential options, it will be interesting to see who AJ gloves up against next.
