Eddie Hearn has been there before, he has an Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder superfight within touching distance, but this time he’s employing a radical strategy to get it over the line. He’s going to stay….quiet.
Unusual for boxing’s greatest showman, but Matchroom supremo Hearn is refusing to build the hype for a long-awaited blockbuster which reportedly is set to go down on March 9, 2024 in Riyadh.
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First though, Joshua must get past Otto Wallin on that massive ‘Day of Reckoning’ bill in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, while Wilder must overcome Joseph Parker on the same show.
If both men prevail, then all roads should lead to March 9, for what former ESPN writer Dan Rafael is claiming will be the first of a two-fight deal.
Hearn on Joshua vs Wilder
Hearn, speaking on Matchroom’s YouTube channel, said: “There’s a lot of talk – we’ve been here before. Nothing’s changed, we really want to make that fight. But it’s all irrelevant if they both don’t win on Saturday. So I think the best thing to do, with all of the talk over the years, is just to let me do my work, I’m gonna be quiet for once. I’m gonna work away in the background to get this over the line but it’s all irrelevant if they both don’t win on Saturday.”
Swedish star Wallin (26-1) took a certain Tyson Fury to the brink in their Las Vegas meeting back in 2019, causing ‘The Gypsy King’ to have 47 stitches in a brutal cut above his eye. There is good reason Hearn is refusing to look past the challenge he presents to AJ this Saturday night.
“It’s a very dangerous fight. Firstly it’s a southpaw, it’s not the elusiveness and the brilliance of Oleksandr Usyk, but it’s a very good, awkward, tricky southpaw. They’re all tricky. But he’s a standup guy, tall. AJ’s got experience of boxing him in the amateurs and sparring with him as well.
“But he’s come on a lot, coming through the Tyson Fury fight which he could easily have won, beating [Murat] Gassiev just in his last fight in Russia, he’s a guy full of confidence and you can hear him talking the talk, and I think that’s nice to see as well going into this fight, bringing the spite out of Josh.
“Six weeks notice against a southpaw is never ideal but we feel like he’s got more than enough to beat him on Saturday.”
Joshua (26-3) was all business when the fighters – every single one of them – made their grand arrivals in Riyadh earlier this week. Hearn says his silence, almost grumpiness, is not something anybody should read into.
“I think the way people over-analyse AJ – they might think that he doesn’t seem himself – it’s all absolute rubbish. He’s trained to the best of his abilities, he’s got the gameplan in place, he’s just got to go out and perform.
“I want him to have that spite, I don’t want him to go into a fight thinking ‘oh, I’m not really up for it’ or ‘this is just another fight’ – it’s not, it’s a very important fight. And I think with everything Otto’s said I think AJ will take great pleasure in taking him out on Saturday, and I believe he will.”
