Anthony Joshua has refused to look too far ahead past his upcoming heavyweight rematch encounter with Dillian Whyte on August 12, to be held at the O2 Arena, London.
If Joshua is successful against his domestic rival, promoter Eddie Hearn has confirmed that it will be full steam ahead towards a heavyweight showdown with Deontay Wilder in December which will be held in Saudi Arabia. Hearn confirmed that a contract had been agreed upon and is on the table to face Wilder; however, defeat will see that particular offer removed from Joshua.
Joshua speaking at yesterday’s opening promotional press conference between himself & Whyte, refused to look ahead towards a fight with Wilder while also aiming his proverbial aim at Fury by calling the WBC champion a “time waster.”
“Forget Wilder and them,” Joshua stated, interrupting a question by promoter Eddie Hearn during a press conference held Monday to formally announce the Joshua-Whyte rematch. “That’s been going through my head for so many years now. I’ve seen the shenanigans in the heavyweight division. I’ll be for real. You’ve seen [lineal/WBC heavyweight champion Fury] Fury saying he was training for Usyk. SugarHill came out and said, ‘Nah, I’m not training him.’ You can see all the lies going on. I don’t waste my time with time wasters.
“It’s only a fight. I just want to fight and get on with it.”
Joshua is very firmly on the rebuild following back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, which saw him lose his unified world heavyweight titles in 2021 before failing to recapture his WBA, WBO, IBF &IBO titles in 2022. Joshua has since relocated his training to Texas and trains under the tutelage of Derrick James, who completed their first camp and contest as a pairing in April, defeating Jermaine Franklin in a lacklustre but conservative performance via points.
Joshua continued to add that all he wants to do moving forward is to fight and, despite a proposed and virtually “signed and sealed” bout with Wilder, did not want to wait until December for that encounter to happen and wished to be consistent in fighting regularly.
“I can be here like. ‘I’m gonna smoke Dillian, I’m gonna run through Wilder. Then I’m gonna fight for the heavyweight championship.’ But that’s projecting a false narrative,” Joshua told DAZN after the press conference. “It’s not a reality yet. What my reality is, I got Dillian Whyte in front of me. Wilder, of course, that would be amazing. But I’m not waiting around. I could have waited. But I need to stay consistent. I need to fight.
“I don’t know what he’s doing with his career. He ain’t fought (since October). That was one round. I just need to crack on and do what I need to do.”
