Joshua: I’ll fight Wilder next year

Heavyweight titlists Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder are slated to fight on back-to-back weeks, but what fans really want to see is the two champions unify against one another. Luckily, Joshua says he’ll be ready and willing to get down to that business in 2018. But first he must take care of the task at hand — Carlos Takam.

Should Joshua handle that fight this weekend, he says he’ll be looking for an opportunity fight Stateside — calling it the ‘top of the pyramid’ — and that a Wilder showdown could be built to be even bigger than his fight against Wladimir Klitschko. That said, Joshua does believe Wilder could use a real statement win in order to help build the anticipation of their showdown.

"Where I'm coming from is that in a career, it's all good going undefeated and looking good, but when it's all said and done, how are people going to remember you? [Wilder] hasn't had any memorable fights," Joshua said. "He needs a real remarkable fight to stamp his name in the history books of heavyweight boxing. He needs that more right now, especially being in America. This is the Mecca of boxing. I even need it. I need Wilder to have a remarkable fight. I need to be the one that steps up to make this dream a reality. I would be honored to go out there and compete with Wilder.

"I'll fight Wilder next year and make it a priority 100 percent. There's no doubt about that."

Wilder says he’ll be keeping an eye on Joshua’s fight this weekend as an early scouting report, but he has his own fight to think about next weekend against Bermane Stiverne.