Sean Crose
“If we sign for the Wilder fight, I don’t expect AJ to fight a top three or four guy,” Eddie Hearn says in reference to former world heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua during a recent interview with Fight Hype. “I think he’ll take a top ten, top fifteen guy again and prepare himself for the Deontay Wilder fight.” When interviewer Marcos Villegas points out that there will be much “grief” heading his way regarding such a strategy, the Matchroom honcho is blunt. “Who gives a fuck about grief?” he asks rhetorically. “When you’ve achieved what he’s (Joshua has) achieved, who gives a fuck? You want to get grief. What? From some bloke on Twitter?”
Hearn goes on to make it clear that the 33 year old Joshua, who has been a heavyweight titlist not once but twice, should essentially be critic proof when it comes to his next choice of opponents. “When you’ve been a two time world heavyweight champion,” says Hearn, “when you’ve won Olympic gold, when you’ve made hundreds of millions, when you’ve changed your life, when you’ve changed people’s lives around you, when you’ve changed your families’ life, are you really at the point in your career when you want to worry about being criticized for taking a fight that you feel is the correct development for a fight a couple of months later which is one of the biggest fights in the sport and one of the biggest in heavyweight history? Fuck everybody.”
Although towering Englishman Joshua hasn’t looked spectacular in recent fights, Hearn argues that it’s all about emerging victorious. “All he cares about is winning,” Hearn says. “If he went in against Deontay Wilder and boxed his head off for twelve rounds, who cares? That’s where he’s at in his career right now.” Fair enough, though even Hearn makes it clear he doesn’t think that’s how things will play out, should a Joshua-Wilder fight, which is being talked about, become a reality. “He’s not going to go in against Wilder and just try and outbox him,” Hearn says of Joshua. “He’s going to go in and try to knock him out.” Knocking out the likes of Wilder would do wonders for Joshua’s career, but Hearn has a point in arguing that the main goal is earning a win in the ring however it may come. “You can’t worry about criticism,” he reiterated to Villegas.