Deontay Wilder Is ‘In’ To Face Anthony Joshua In The Middle East, Eddie Hearn Reveals

Deontay Wilder vs. Anthony Joshua appears to be closer to happening.

According to promoter, Eddie Hearn, he revealed Wilder just told them he is in to box Joshua in the Middle East. Of course, Wilder and Joshua have been rumored to box each other in December in the Middle East and now it appears to be set.

“It’s on. We’re being told that Wilder is in,” Hearn told Boxing Social. “And subject to finalizing some of the terms—Again, we know these people, we’ve dealt with them at various times—We’re in. So in his mind, he’s fighting Deontay Wilder in December. We’re up for it. We have some concrete offers coming this week for this fight and I don’t see an issue. …I don’t see a problem from our end.”

Although the plan is for Anthony Joshua to box Deontay Wilder in December, Eddie Hearn says they still want Joshua to fight in July in another tune-up bout. Joshua returned to the win column with a win over Jermaine Franklin in April, but the focus right now is securing the Wilder fight.

“Once that gets papered (the Wilder fight), we then work backwards to the end of July to the first week of August,” Hearn said. “I want him to fight (in the summer). I think he wants to fight. I think Derrick James wants him to fight. We just have to pick the right opponent. What it is, it’s really a preparation for that Wilder fight. You can’t [prepare for Wilder], but in a sense what you can do is you can cement everything you’ve been doing. You can get more confident. You can get more comfortable with your team and your tactics. So you need proper opposition but at the same time you’re not going to fight a Top-5 guy when you’ve got one of the biggest fights in the world a few months later. My priority at the moment is to secure the Deontay Wilder fight and every other decision will stem off that.”

Who do you think will win, Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder?