Growing Pressure on Joshua to Meet Deontay Wilder

There is growing pressure on Anthony Joshua to go up against Deontay Wilder, especially after his recent fight against Luis Ortiz. 

The absolute demolition of Ortiz by the Bronze Bomber in New York has significantly increased the odds amongst bookies that Wilder will be up against Joshua after the latter’s match against Joseph Parker. Accordingly, betting interest in the upcoming boxing fight has intensified in recent days, especially with some interesting offers of a Joseph Parker free bet options. The upcoming matchup is an important one for Joshua, because if he wins, he’ll end up adding Parker’s WBO belt to his existing set of WBA, IBF and IBO titles. 

A fight in Vegas?

Wilder’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has hinted at a preference for Anthony to bank one more outing before landing up in the ring against Wilder, the present WBC champion. However, bookmakers have responded differently, owing to the growing demand in Europe and America for them to fight this summer.

Wilder’s stock went through the roof after his fifth round knocking down of Ortiz, incredible survival of Ortiz’s onslaught in the seventh round, and a stylish finish to his match with Cuba’s King Kong in the tenth round. “My opponent was much more dangerous than Parker will be against Joshua”, said Wilder. 

Till now, Hearn has been working towards organizing a stadium fight in either Wembley or Cardiff for an audience of around 80,000, but the growing excitement around Wilder’s stature in the US has left the management with the belief that they can make more money from the sale of 20,000 high priced tickets for a fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where another fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin is set to happen on May 5. Both Wilder and Joshua have denied any concerns about fighting on the other boxer’s home turf. 

Final hurdles

However, there exists one final hurdle before the mega event can take place in the summer, which is Wilder’s demand for a 50 per-cent purse split. Hearn has exhibited great resistance against this demand on the principled reason that Joshua has more belts to his name, and accordingly a 50 per-cent split would not be fair. While Hearn’s resistance is well founded and in-line with past precedent on how a purse split is negotiated, it is also imperative to note that Wilder’s stellar performance against Ortiz is the reason why this fixture has become extremely popular amongst both fans and bookies. In other words, while Joshua may be bringing more belts to the table, it is Wilder who’s bringing the people to the match. 

Apart from Wilder, Joshua’s alternatives after his upcoming fight against CParker could include Alexander Povetkin and Kubrat Pulev. While both Eastern-European fighters are excellent fighters in their own right and are bound to give Joshua a run for his money, the Eastern Beasts will simply not generate the same amount of box-office activity as the Bronze Bomber. Since fixtures often boil down to a matter of money, it’s likely that the AJ’s next opponent will be Wilder.