Eddie Hearn: If Wilder wants to fight for legacy, he has to fight Joshua

Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury appear headed for a rematch — the WBC has approved one, after all — but until pen is put to paper, you never know. And Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn still says he wants to get an Anthony Joshua-Wilder fight done for April 13 at Wembley Stadium.

Hearn is using Wilder’s own words against him here, trying to goad the American into the fight, and it’s not a bad strategy:

“If Wilder wants to be undisputed — he’s always gone on in his career about one face, one name, one king of the division — the only way you can do that is to win the belts. Anthony Joshua has 75 per cent of the belts, but we want that 25 per cent. If he does want to create a legacy, he’s got to fight Joshua, then he can fight Fury. But he may go straight into the Fury fight. These next couple of weeks are going to be very interesting. It’s great times in the heavyweight division, anything can happen.”

Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KO) and Fury (27-0-1, 19 KO) fought to a hugely disputed draw on Dec. 1 in Los Angeles, and there was call for an immediate rematch, enough that it seemed as though Joshua (22-0, 21 KO) was somewhat left out in the cold despite holding three of the four major titles.

But you never really know what will happen in boxing. Maybe Wilder and Fury can’t come to an agreement so easily this time — after all, Fury has some more leverage now than he did before, and they’re both going to want more money. If the details can’t be worked out, it leaves a lot on the table.

And that could also mean Fury going after Joshua, too. Don’t discount that. It would be an enormous fight at Wembley, just like Joshua-Wilder would be.

But like Hearn says, we’ll have to wait and see how this all shakes out in the coming weeks. There’s a lot at stake for the world’s top three heavyweights, also among the sport’s biggest stars, and I wouldn’t expect anyone to leap into a deal without measuring against other potential fights.