DEONTAY Wilder remains intrigued, albeit to a far lesser extent, when it comes to discussing a potential showdown with Anthony Joshua.
The pair have been on a stop-start collision course, it seems, for the best part of seven years, only for their heavyweight dustup to remain several signatures away from materialising.
Towards the end of 2023, however, it appeared that both former world champions came agonisingly close to entering their long-anticipated clash.
But while Joshua, 28-4 (25 KOs), came through his assignment, against Otto Wallin, in comfortable fashion, Wilder, 43-4-1 (42 KOs), was forced to suffer a wide points defeat to Joseph Parker.
As a result, their tentatively-planned spectacle for the following year was ultimately scuppered, forcing the two heavy-handed giants to go their separate ways.
For Joshua, a brutal second-round finish over Francis Ngannou was then followed by an equally devastating defeat, this time at the hands of Daniel Dubois, last September.
Wilder, meanwhile, was cleaned out inside five rounds by Zhilei Zhang over a year ago, with many, in turn, throwing shade on his credentials at the elite level.
Nevertheless, the 39-year-old will enter a comeback fight against Tyrrell Herndon, a relatively unremarkable operator, at the Charles Koch Arena, Kansas, this Friday.
As for Joshua, a selection of heavyweights, including Wilder, have been mentioned as potential opponents for his likely return later this year.
Until that time arrives, though, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ remains reluctant to get his hopes up while, at the same time, expressing his dwindling interest in what is still, if nothing else, a marketable fight.
“As long as we’re in the same division, there’s always going to be hope [for the Joshua fight]; there’s always going to be a discussion,” Wilder told Boxing News.
“But at this point, I don’t get excited in the same way that I used to. This is a situation where it will happen when it happens.
“They’ve already stated that they won’t care if they never fight me – and I believe that. I’m not putting any energy into that, unless we’re in the ring. Otherwise, it’s all talk.”
