_2.jpg)
IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is standing firm on his claim that Deontay Wilder is the reason that they never went forward with their anticipated fight.
Wilder recently tweeted to Tyson Fury - “you know I was offered more money to fight Joshua than I was getting to fight you – again being a man of my word, I fought you.”
Wilder was complaining that Fury was attempting bypass their trilogy fight.
But Joshua saw the statement as confirmation that Wilder passed over a lucrative offer to have them unify.
“I’m not surprised,” Joshua told Sky Sports about Wilder’s reaction to his defeat to Fury.
“He is trying to express how he feels to the world. He has left it to us, the masses, to interpret it how we feel is best. How he feels today might change in a year or two years due to experiences or more understanding of the situation that he has gone through. He was knocking everybody out and got used to a winning performance. He took a loss and isn’t used to it.
“As time goes on, he may express himself differently. Today? In my humble opinion it isn’t coming across in the right way. The positive out of it? He told the world that he ducked and dodged me. We offered him a fight for the undisputed championship of the world and he went down the route of fighting Fury. I’m glad we can clear that up and move on. As time goes on, it will all come to fruition and make sense.”
Joshua is back in the ring on December 12, when he makes a mandatory defense against Kubrat Pulev.
Wilder, who was stopped in seven rounds by Fury back in January, is still trying to enforce his rematch clause on the ‘Gypsy King.’