British promoter Eddie Hearn has given Deontay Wilder 40-0 (39) a warning that his blue-chip heavyweight Anthony Joshua 21-0 (20) will move ahead with a fight against dangerous Russian Alexander Povetkin 34-1 (24) if the American doesn’t come to the party and accept his latest offer for a heavyweight unification bout.
The Matchroom Boxing head honcho has been in negotiations with Povetkin’s team about the WBA mandatory challenge while still trying to work out a deal with WBC heavyweight champion Wilder for their multi-million dollar trans-Atlantic clash.
“I don’t like making deadlines because sometimes it gets people’s backs up but at some stage soon we have to make a decision,” Hearn said to Sky Sports. “We are close to closing a deal with Povetkin with (Andrey) Robinsky and World of Boxing and once the deal is closed, there is no Deontay Wilder.
Hearn revealed that his father Barry Hearn, a stalwart of sports promotion in the United Kingdom, is currently in New York and may meet with Wilder’s advisor Shelly Finkel to help iron out the details of the deal.
“Wilder has had the latest offer from us for the last two weeks which was our improved offer and we are still talking to them and in fact, my dad is out in New York at the moment, and he might meet Shelly today.
“They have our offer so they have to accept it or move on. It’s not a case of if you don’t accept this offer the fight is dead, we will just fight Povetkin and carry on our negotiations to the next one.
“It has to be the next one, or the one after that. Joshua wants to fight. We’ve got an opportunity to go in September and Josh is keen to fight in that month and if Wilder wants it, it’s there.
“But I do still believe Wilder will take this offer.”
Joshua, 28, added the WBO title of Joseph Parker 24-1 (18) to his collection in March when he outpointed the Kiwi boxer of 12-rounds at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Povetkin appeared on the undercard, stopping British fringe contender David Price 22-5(18) in five exciting rounds.
The 38-year-old Russian is the leading contender in the WBA and WBO.
Meanwhile, the 32-year-old “Bronze Bomber” held off a spirited challenge from highly regarded Cuban contender Luis Ortiz 28-1 (24) earlier in the same month, stopping him by TKO in the 10th round of a close fight that Wilder was leading by a single point on all three judges’ scorecards.
 a warning that his blue-chip heavyweight Anthony Joshua 21-0 (20) will move ahead with a fight against dangerous Russian Alexander Povetkin 34-1 (24) if the American doesn’t come to the party and accept his latest offer for a heavyweight unification bout.){kind=link}