Deontay Wilder stole some headline space on Saturday, breaking his months-long silence with a controversial social media post in which he accused Tyson Fury of loading his gloves, brought referee Kenny Bayless and former trainer Mark Breland into some sort of conspiracy charge against him, but also still demanded a third fight with Fury, noting that when Fury was at his career low, he gave him a fight.
With that, Wilder mentioned that he had a bigger offer to fight Anthony Joshua, but chose to fight Fury instead.
That last part rather tickled Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, who spoke with iFL TV during yesterday’s Usyk-Chisora card in London. Hearn remembers quite well that the Wilder team said many times that they did not get an offer to face Joshua prior to Wilder signing for the first Fury fight in 2018.
“The truth always comes out in the wash, doesn’t it? ‘Tyson, you know that I was offered more money to fight Anthony Joshua than you’ — hold on, I thought AJ ducked you? You have just in one Tweet completely explained to the public exactly happened,” Hearn said.
Hearn also had little time for the rest of Wilder’s ramble.
“It’s ridiculous. Park him to the side, let the big boys, the real men go at it, yeah? Usyk-Chisora, Dillian Whyte against Povetkin, AJ. Look at Dillian Whyte. He got knocked out and he was winning the fight, and he never moaned once. He got up, he dusted himself down, he goes straight back to work. Proper geezers. AJ against Andy Ruiz in front of 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden. It was so difficult for him to dust — but that’s what you do, that’s what champions do!
“You don’t moan, you don’t say, ‘Oh, this glove, and’ — unless you’ve got any real substance, then be quiet, go back to the drawing board, work harder, follow your dreams, let the hunger burn to become champion again.
“It’s gone from the costume to now he’s being found out about AJ, to now it’s something about the glove. It’s getting worse and worse.”
Hearn also remembered that he and the Matchroom side were criticized heavily, particularly by fans, over the entire Joshua-Wilder negotiation story of 2018.
“Loads of criticism, and it hurt because I knew how much we wanted to make that fight, and I knew they were playing games,” he said. “I was calling them, to try and get a meeting, and I wasn’t even allowed a call or a meeting to try and get a contract or try and make the fight. AJ has always pushed me to try and make that fight, to make the undisputed fight. You’ve just seen it unfold in one Tweet.”