Deontay Wilder next fight: WBC champion ‘signs’ for rematch vs Luis Ortiz to delay unification bout against Anthony Joshua
The American tweeted to say he had signed for a rematch against the man he beat in March 2018 and boxing fans think he is simply ducking AJ
Anthony Joshua wants to fight Deontay Wilder, but the American has other plans.
The current WBC champion announced he has ‘signed’ a contract to fight Luis Ortiz adding on Twitter ‘all my controversial fights must get dealt with ASAP.’
Wilder beat Ortiz in their first fight in New York last year, knocking the Cuban out in the 10th round to inflict his only professional defeat.
His previous fight was a first round knockout of Dominic Breazeale to record the ninth-straight defence of his WBC title.
Joshua, who fights Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden on 1 June, recently spoke about wanting face-to-face talks with Wilder to finally arrange a meeting in the ring.
The WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight champion, clearly frustrated with the failed attempts from promoters and broadcasters to engineer the clash, said: “I think they should sit us down face-to-face and talk about what the issues are man to man and get this fight sorted this year.”
Former heavyweight boxer David Haye believes AJ is the best of the bunch right now due to his unblemished record.
“Anthony Joshua’s never had a draw,” he told talkSPORT.
“If you look at Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, they had a fight, I was strangely happy with a draw because it’s hard to go into an opponent’s back yard and take the title off the champion after being knocked down so heavily, twice.”
At the start of May, Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn revealed Ortiz had been offered $7m to fight the Brit in New York when he was looking for a replacement for Jarrell Miller, who was kicked off the card for failing a drug test.
Initially, the Cuban’s camp accused Hearn of making ‘lowball’ offers in negotiations, though they soon retracted this statement when he threatened to ‘expose’ them.
“I got two phone calls when the [Miller] news broke straight away. One was Jay Jimenez who is Luis Ortiz’s manager,” Hearn revealed.
“Jay Jimenez phoned me up and said, ‘I can’t believe this, I don’t think Luis will be ready.’
“I said, ‘Find out if Luis will be ready.’
“He came back the next day or two days later and said, ‘Make us an offer.’
“I made them an offer $6million – that was my first offer…
“No reply, this was on Friday. Monday I said, ‘I’ll call you.’
“Later on that day I came back and said, ‘Right, this is it, $7million for June 1. [If he wins, he gets] a rematch for quite a bit more and if he loses, I’ll give you another fight for a lot of money for security.’
“Nothing back.”
https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/5...nthony-joshua/
Bookmarks