Hearn invites Wilder for Joshua, Ruiz fight
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn wants to have WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) sit down with IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) to try and negotiate a unification fight to get it done for later this year.
However, Hearn isn’t sure if Wilder can get the 50-50 split that he’s asking for, but he says it’s a possibility that AJ might agree to it.
Hearn name dropping Wilder’s name to try and get him to come to the Joshua vs. Ruiz Jr. could be construed as an effort on his part to get more boxing fans interested in the Joshua-Ruiz Jr. fight.
It’s unlikely that Wilder, 6’7?, will bother attending the Joshua vs. Ruiz Jr. Wilder wanted to attend Joshua’s fight former WBO champion Joseph Parker last year so that he could get into the ring, but he wasn’t the green light by Hearn to be able to do that.
Both Joshua and Hearn didn’t want Wilder to enter the ring. A lot has changed in the past year, hasn’t it? Given that experience, Wilder likely won’t take Hearn up on the offer to attend the Joshua-Ruiz Jr. fight.
Hearn notes that Joshua will have a lot of pressure to beat the American Ruiz Jr. (32-1, 21 KOs) on June 1, and look good doing it. Wilder set a high bar last Saturday night with his first-round knockout win over Dominic Breazeale (21-2, 18 KOs) on May 18 in their fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“It was a fantastic performance. He did exactly what a heavyweight should do,” Hearn said to IFL TV about Wilder’s first-round knockout win over Dominic Breazeale. “He was wobbled himself earlier in the round. That’s what he does. He’s erratic and explosive. He’s vulnerable, but he’s extremely explosive, and dangerous. That’s why people love to watch. AJ beat Breazeale in seven rounds, and Wilder cleaned him out in a round. Next week at the Garden the pressure will be to put on a performance,” Hearn said about Joshua’s fight against Ruiz Jr.
Wilder did a better job of defeating Breazeale than Joshua did in 2016. It took Joshua seven rounds to stop Breazeale three years ago. Wilder stopped Breazeale in the first round. Hearn’s excuse for Joshua taking longer than Wilder was that AJ was ill at the time, and he was a 16-fight novice.