Hearn: One loss could cost fans Wilder-Joshua fight

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t deny his frustration that DAZN was unable to bring Deontay Wilder into the fold — at least not for the time being. Right now the most interesting fights to be made in the heavyweight division consist of any match-up between its three biggest stars: Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Tyson Fury.

But as it stands, all three of those fighters are aligned with different promoters on different platforms, causing even more division during what was expected to be a heavyweight renaissance. Basically, the business of boxing per usual.

Hearn tells Sky Sports that although each of the top three heavyweights are tied up for the first half of the year, he’s still hopeful that he can at least deliver the Wilder-Joshua fight that’s had fans frothing at the mouth for the past year.

“It’s extremely frustrating, but like I said, it looks clear now what those big three are doing this summer, and it’s our responsibility, and I hope they understand their responsibility to give the fight fans what they want, which is the biggest fight in world boxing, hopefully at the end of the year.”

The British promoter would continue by urging Wilder to negotiate a deal with Joshua now, knowing that every interim fight before has the potential to derail everything.

“Make it now,” he said. “If Breazeale were to beat Wilder, if Miller was to beat AJ, we lose the biggest fight in world boxing, so hopefully everybody can keep winning.”

As it stands we’re still no closer to the fights we want to see being made, but at least with Wilder only signed on for another one-off with Showtime, he still has the flexibility to move towards the big fight afterwards.