Deontay Wilder has predicted Anthony Joshua would beat Tyson Fury if their heavyweight title fight is resurrected.
Fury had offered Joshua a WBC heavyweight title fight following his rival's recent defeat by Oleksandr Usyk in August, which 'AJ' gladly accepted. The contract was sent to Joshua with the 'Gypsy King' imposing a ten-day deadline to sign the agreement which was ultimately missed.
Fury called off the fight but after making a U-turn, he proposed a new deadline which Joshua also missed leaving the fight in jeopardy. This week both fighters' teams appear to have confirmed the fight is now off with no new talks taking place after Fury lost patience with the negotiations.
But nonetheless Wilder believes Joshua could get the upper hand over his former three-time rival if they are to meet, providing he works on the mental aspects of his skillset. “I can see Anthony Joshua beating Tyson Fury. I know that’s crazy – some people would think so," Deontay Wilder told Fight Freaks Unite.
“But I could really see Joshua winning that fight. I think if he changes certain things mentally, he could come back and redeem himself more than ever." Wilder has fought Fury three times during his career, with the first fight ending in a controversial draw which many believed should have been scored in Fury's favour.
The rematch ended in devastating defeat for Wilder, before he managed to enforce a third fight which prevented an undisputed clash between Fury and Joshua last year. However the trilogy fight ended in similar KO fashion, with Wilder stopped in the penultimate round despite dropping the 'Gypsy King' twice.
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It was anticipated by many that Fury would be the overwhelming favourite going into the contest with Joshua, with his counterpart having twice been beaten by Usyk . However the fight now looks in jeopardy with no fresh talks having been held since Joshua missed the champion's renewed deadline.
The challenger's promoter Eddie Hearn has claimed in his latest update that the fight now appears dead in the water. He told Matchroom Boxing : "People surely aren’t thick enough to [not] see that Tyson Fury has called two deadlines on this fight and the fight has passed in Tyson Fury’s deadlines. People talk about putting up barriers, we sent our final draft contract back to sign.
"They want to appoint their partner as an arbitrator, that sort of stuff doesn’t work.. We get another one [deadline], Tyson Fury says, ‘We’re telling you now, the fight is off unless you sign [today]. That deadline passed, I’ve not heard back from George Warren since. So as far as we’re concerned, the fight’s off. We’re happy to continue the discussions, we haven’t had any of those."
