Deontay Wilder won a thrilling heavyweight bout against Derek Chisora on points at London’s O2 Arena before calling out Anthony Joshua during a post-fight confrontation
Deontay Wilder called out Anthony Joshua after his heavyweight victory over Derek Chisora. ‘The Bronze Bomber’ secured a thrilling points win at London’s O2 Arena and chose to deliver a direct message to Joshua, who was ringside, as he departed the arena.
The two boxing legends had encountered each other before the contest with Wilder striding straight past Joshua. Yet on his return to his changing room, as filmed by DAZN Boxing, Wilder made eye contact and fist-bumped Joshua before declaring: “Let’s do it.” After moving past Joshua, he then remarked: “He’s scared as f***, let’s do it.”
Saturday evening marked Joshua’s first public outing since being involved in a car accident in Nigeria that claimed the lives of his two close friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn was questioned about his fighter’s future on the evening, and the 46-year-old provided a definitive assessment.
Hearn commented: “To be honest, we’ve been very focused about making the Tyson Fury fight. AJ did mention to me that he’s supporting Derek he thinks he’ll win, but if Deontay Wilder wins in style tonight, it opens a big fight with Anthony Joshua. We are here as friends and fans but got one eye on the game.”
With Wilder emerging victorious, a blockbuster clash between the pair appears feasible but might not materialise immediately. That’s because the American appears to have sustained a broken hand and possibly a rib injury too, according to Chisora.
He said: “I know I broke two things. His hand and his rib because right now he can’t talk and stand right now.”
Any immediate clash between Fury and Joshua is also ruled out with The Gypsy King scheduled for his comeback to the sport next weekend when he takes on Arslanbek Makhmudov at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Fury has confessed he has hung up his gloves on five different occasions and recently revealed why Joshua was amongst the factors behind his latest comeback. Back in February he said: “The biggest turning point in this comeback for me was a tragedy that happened with Anthony Joshua.
“I was on holiday with my family in Thailand for Christmas, then I hear all that bad news that’s gone on, and I thought life is very, very short and very precious and very fragile and anything can happen at any given moment.
“You should never put things off until tomorrow or next year or next week because tomorrow is never promised to nobody.
“The Bible says ‘Tomorrow is not a gift, tomorrow ain’t promised, tomorrow is a mystery’. So we have to live for today.
“I made my mind up there and then that I’m going to come back to boxing because it’s something that I love and I’m passionate about and I’ve always been in love with, and there is no tomorrow to put it off too, so that’s why I’m back today for this big fight.”