Anthony Joshua orders Eddie Hearn to finally sort unification fight against Deontay Wilder

ANTHONY JOSHUA has ordered Eddie Hearn to sort a unification fight with Deontay Wilder after seeing no “serious interest” from the American.

WBC champion Wilder has accused WBA, IBF and IBO belt-holder Joshua of “ducking” their proposed unification bout.

But speaking to iFL TV, Joshua – who has vowed to “eat” Wilder – said he has told promoter Hearn to get a time and place sorted for their mouth-watering clash lined up as soon as possible.

He said: “We had a meeting and I said ‘are there any offers that have came your way?’ because Wilder seems to say that I am ducking him and that he is really interested in fighting me.

“There’s not been any offers to say ‘we’ve got this venue free on this day, we’ve this broadcaster and that broadcaster interested in taking the fight and these are the terms and conditions of the fight’ – I haven’t had anything.

“So it seems to me there’s interest but it’s not a serious interest.

“So what we’ve decided to do is, Eddie [Hearn] is going to America for the Danny Jacobs fight, and he’s contacting the champions that are interested in fighting.

“I’ll have to put my foot forward and start making the offers and try to secure a fight with the likes of Deontay Wilder or Joseph Parker.”

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Hearn appeared to hear Joshua’s demands, telling that he will sit down with Wilder’s people later this week.

Hearn said: “I’m sitting down with [Wilder’s representatives] Shelly Finkel and Al Haymon later this week to have our first conversations regarding Joshua vs Wilder.

“Like all these big fights it’s never easy but hopefully we can find somewhere between reality and fantasy that suits us all.

“I had a good meeting with AJ [on Tuesday] – it’s his goal to try and become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world by the close of 2018, so, at present, to do that we must go through Parker and Wilder.”

Joshua, who recorded his 20th knockout in 20 fights against Carlos Takam in Cardiff last month, rubbished Wilder’s claim that he is purposely avoiding a showdown.

He said: “Ducking? I’ve been taking challenges since my 15th fight, in the sense that I fought for a world title in my 15th or 16th fight, so that tells you where I’m at in terms of fighting people.

“Me and Dillian [Whyte] – that was a fight that he was calling me out, we got the fight cracking.

“Deontay Wilder wants to call me out – no problem, I’ve already had a meeting about that.

“But the difference between me and him is, I don’t just say what I say to please people – I mean what I say, I don’t do my negotiations in public, I don’t do business in public.”