Promoter report progress in Joshua, Wilder bout

Renowned promoter Eddie Hearn has confirmed that venues have made offers to host a proposed clash between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.

The Matchroom promoter has been looking for the next bout for Joshua, the former unified heavyweight champion after he beat Robert Helenius last month.

There is talk of a December clash as a tune-up ahead of a Wilder fight.

If Joshua and Wilder did meet in the ring after years of speculation and negotiation, then there is also speculation that it could form part of a double-header bill shared with Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship.

However, speaking to Boxing Social, Hearn discussed only the prospect of Wilder, revealing he had talks over the fight and a potential rough date.

He said: "I have one name - Deontay Wilder. I had a good conversation with Shelly Finkel. We want to have a fight. We received an offer, as did Deontay Wilder.  Now, at the moment, we can't move forward with that, but we do have other offers that have come in, and we have opportunities to do that in other locations.

"We'll speak to AJ about a couple of offers that have come in and hopefully we can go straight into that fight.

"In the Middle East. We have to digest them, we have to speak to them about when the fight will take place. The original date was January, but now there are talks of potentially February or March. Do we fight in December?

"One name remains the focus for the

next fight and that's Deontay Wilder."

He also suggested that Wilder's track record does not match his powerful reputation.

"I think Deontay Wilder is extremely exciting, but he does not have one elite victory on his resume. I don't think he's ever beaten a top-five heavyweight in his whole career."