Eddie Hearn, promoter for former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, is hoping to have the British star collide with Deontay Wilder in the month of March.
On December 23rd in Saudi Arabia, Joshua and Wilder will co-headline a major boxing card in Ryidah.
Joshua will face top contender Otto Wallin, while Wilder will take on Joseph Parker in a battle of former world champions.
For several months, Hearn had been trying to get a Joshua vs. Wilder fight on track. The fight faced several delays due to funding issues with the interested management group from the Middle East.
Should the two heavyweights win their upcoming assignments, a 2024 showdown is looking likely.
“We had six weeks, really, when we received a phone call from Saudi Arabia to say, ‘Do you want to fight on the card? ‘Otto Wallin is the opponent. And at the same time, we got offered fights for [Dmitry] Bivol and [Jai] Opetaia and AJ was up for it,” Hearn told MacLife.
“He wanted to fight three times this year. Wilder is on the card; victory for both and the fight is inevitable. We got from a situation of it being pretty much agreed for January to not being agreed. But now we fight in December and hopefully we make the fight for March.”
Wilder will be returning for the first time since October of 2022, when he blew away Robert Helenius in a single round at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Joshua, with new head trainer Derrick James in his corner, picked up a decision win over Jermaine Franklin in April. He made a quick return in the month of August, with a knockout victory over late replacement Helenius.
