Formerly promoter Eddie Hearn (Matchroom Boxing) ran into manager Shelley Finkel – he suspects that he did not convey to his client, American heavyweight Deontay Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs), an offer to face off against Briton Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs).
It’s funny that Finkel doesn’t even make excuses –
confessedthat he had avoided Hearn more than once: “Eddie says I’m avoiding him? Well, that’s a bit true. Although no, it’s not. This is the absolute truth. Everything is simple here. Wilder has a fight with Robert Helenius. And then I get a message from Hearn: “Let’s talk? I have a cool offer for Deontay.” Realize that if Wilder needs to fight Helenius first, then all he has to think about is the fight ahead. After all, if suddenly something goes wrong, then all the “cool offers” in one second will become irrelevant.
“If I talked to Eddie, then all of you (the media) would already play me and write about the fight between Wilder and Joshua,” Finkel smiles. “That’s why I discussed it with Deontay and Al Haymon first. We all agreed that we need to get through Helenius first. That’s all. Dislike for Hearn? No, definitely not. By the way, are you aware that 30-40 years ago I collaborated a lot with his father Barry Hearn? And we had a really great working relationship. Eddie? Well, he makes it look like he’s been in business for a long time, when he’s not. But he has something to be proud of – he really did some solid shows.
Finkel argues that “everything has its time. The time will come when we’ll talk about the Wilder vs Joshua fight. And it either happens or it doesn’t. When the time came, they made Joshua fight Wladimir Klitschko. In the meantime, as far as I understand, they are busy talking about the fight with Tyson Fury. I hope everything works out for them.”
And Finkel also said that the Usyk-Wilder fight is very real. Although Hearn suggests that they are in vain: Alexander will not lose a round to Deontay.
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