Anthony Joshua is not one for trash-talk, yet he could not resist coming out with a little bit of it when addressing the recent calling out he has been subjected to by both Deontay Wilder and David Haye.
Wilder, via a video the WBC heavyweight champ uploaded on social media, strongly suggests the WBA/IBF ruler is unwilling to face him. Not so says AJ, who gave both Wilder and his fellow Brit Haye both barrels.
“We’ve got David Feathers (David Haye) and Beyonce Wilder (Deontay Wilder),” Joshua told Sky News before laughing and adding, “I had to do it! All these guys talk about me all the time and it’s negative, always negative, but sooner or later I’ll be ramming my jab down their throat. It’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when it comes to the likes of David Haye and Deontay Wilder because there has been no era of boxing where heavyweights, middleweights, welterweights haven’t come together. We have to fight each other and that’s just the way it’s going to go.”
A collision between Joshua, 19-0(19) and Wilder, 38-0(37) seems inevitable, as well as being a potentially great fight we all want to see, but Haye, has he really got what it takes to challenge AJ? Haye himself, at the presser ahead of his must-win return fight with Tony Bellew, admitted he cannot even think about Joshua, or anyone else other than Bellew right now. Maybe, if Haye reverses his upset loss to Bellew (and he is a slight betting favourite going into the December 17 rematch set for The O2) he will emerge as a realistic challenger for Joshua.
But it is the Joshua-Wiler fight we all really want, even need, to see. It’s great that theses two are engaging in back and forth trash-talk, as it builds the fight that much more. It might not be Ali-Frazier, but Wilder-Joshua is without doubt the single biggest heavyweight fight possible today.
When they do meet, will it be Joshua ramming his jab down Wilder’s throat, or will “The Bronze Bomber’s” bombs get there first? Hopefully we will find out next summer – in either Las Vegas or at Wembley.
