Negotiations between Anthony Joshua’s and Deontay Wilder’s camp have taken a “bizarre” turn, according to promoter Eddie Hearn.
Hearn believed Joshua was “closer” to fighting Wilder after the WBC champion revealed his offer (a 50-50 split with a guarantee of $50m to Joshua) on Instagram on Wednesday, to which Joshua – the IBF, WBA and WBO title-holder – replied, “let’s roll”.
But the deadline on Wilder’s proposal expired at midnight on Thursday and although Hearn wanted negotiations to resume on Friday, he said talks have hit numerous hurdles over the last 24 hours.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, he said: “It’s all very bizarre. I returned the email of Deontay Wilder and said we are very interested in making this fight, please send us a draft contract.
“He replied and said ‘you have to accept the fight and then we will send you the contract’. I’ve never known anything so bizarre since I’ve worked in boxing.
“I had a meeting with Shelly Finkel scheduled for Thursday, he cancelled that meeting. I requested a meeting for today (Friday) and he emailed me, while also emailing the entire press world, saying ‘there is no point in meeting it would be non-productive – we have to accept the deal first.’
“It’s always nice to call someone’s bluff. What we’ve done is called their bluff here, and they won’t even meet to talk about the deal.
“It’s bizarre, but we are talking to other people as well. There’s probably about 50 people trying to make this deal at the moment. You’ve got Shelly Finkel, Al Haymon, Jay Deas and other people.
“When I was on stage I had texts from two people who I had not spoken to for about a year, saying ‘I can help you make this fight’.
“We asked for a meeting to try and talk about the offer – they rejected it. We asked for a contract – they rejected it. I don’t know what more we can do, we can continue trying.
“I believe the boxing world has realised that this was a PR stunt turned disaster. We do want the fight and conversations will continue.
“Dominic Breazeale tweeted this morning ‘I have been told I am fighting Deontay Wilder in August’.
“Is this whole thing a bit of profile building for Wilder? We hope not, we want the fight.”
