Wilder rejects Joshua fight for April, prefers Fury rematch

Anthony Joshua can forget about a fight against unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder for April 13, as the American knockout artist wants a rematch against Tyson Fury to clear up the controversy over their 12 round split draw earlier this month on December 1.

Wilder says it would be “dumb” to move forward from the draw against lineal champion Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) to scrap it out with IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) in a unification fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England in April.

“It’d be dumb to just fight somebody else while you’ve already got a fight everyone is talking about. That’d be stupid,” Wilder said to Fighthype about his preference to fight a rematch with Fury over a unification match against Joshua. “I’m going with Tyson Fury, for sure. We’ve got to do the rematch. It gotta come right back. It was a controversial fight and when it’s like that you’ve got to come back,” Wilder said.

Joshua wants a fight with Wilder to try and take his WBC title to add to his collection of heavyweight belts that he’s accumulated in the last two years. The World Boxing Council title is the last piece of the puzzle that Joshua needs for him to be the unified champion. Joshua insists that he’s going to get his hands on Wilder’s WBC title one way or another. However, with Wilder not interested in a unification fight with Joshua at the moment, AJ is going to need to chill and be satisfied facing fellow Matchroom Sport stable-mate Dillian Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs) in a rematch on April 13 at Wembley Stadium.