Wilder rejects £8.8m offer from Joshua, fight may hold in September

Nigeria-British Heavyweight boxer, Anthony Joshua could be in the rings in September for his unification bout against America’s Deontay Wilder.

There are claims that Wilder’s camp rejected an £8.8million offer from Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn.

The expectations are high that the blockbuster bout would be staged at Wembley.

Negotiations are at advanced stage according to reports.

The Americans are set to put forward their own terms in the next 48 hours ahead of the fight, which could be worth an estimated £70m.

Joshua and Hearn are pursuing a scenario that would see the first leg of a two-bout arrangement.

Hearn said, ‘The fight itself is a fascinating one and there are many places and ways to do it. Anthony feels strongly that after all we have built here in the UK, this is where the first one should be – ideally September at Wembley Stadium but we will see.’

Wilder’s camp have previously declared they are willing to come to the UK this summer for a showdown that would pit the American’s WBC title against Joshua’s IBF, WBA and WBO belts.

‘Whether that fight happens next or after depends solely on the American,” said Hearn.

‘I saw many reports this week about the amount of money in this fight. Whilst it is a massive event, they are predominantly grossly over-cooked as always. This week we submitted an offer of more than five times his highest purse and we will continue dialogue over the next couple of weeks to try to get this done.

‘I am not going to talk further on the offer for now as I have learnt from past mistakes that trying to goad a potential opponent, it can sometimes backfire and they can end up choosing an alternative fight for considerably less money.’