Anthony Joshua is set to fight Deontay Wilder next and believes the negotiations for the bout are going in a “positive” direction.
“Things are positive,” Joshua told Sky Sports News. He ruled out the possibility of fighting anyone else first, explaining: “The timeframe doesn’t really give an opportunity for that.
“In reality we’re trying to schedule a fight for December so unfortunately no. That’s the time scale we’re looking forward to really. In reality I’m going to focus on the Wilder fight for now.”
He sees a potential “stumbling block” in trying to combine the blockbuster heavyweight event with a Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undisputed championship showdown.
“Fury’s got to get past [Francis] Ngannou. Usyk’s got to get past [Daniel] Dubois. Good luck to both of them. Good luck to every party involved and we can sit down and then rejig things around,” he revealed.
“The goal is to have Usyk and Fury compete for the undisputed heavyweight championship, myself and Deontay Wilder, two big punchers, great fighters, been to the top of the mountain, slug it out and may the best man win.
“It’ll be a great event potentially. Wait to see what happens and then finalise the devil in the detail.”