There was a time when it appeared Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder would meet for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. However, after a series of back-and-forth negotiations stalled out, both guys went their separate ways and suffered their first professional defeats.
Joshua ended up losing his heavyweight titles in a historic upset to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019. Six months later, the Brit regained the IBF, WBA (super), and WBO heavyweight titles from Ruiz. Wilder went on to go to a split draw with Tyson Fury in December 2018. Then in February 2020, the "Bronze Bomber" got stopped by Fury to lose the WBC belt.
Joshua and Fury were on a collision course to meet for all four championships until an arbitrator ruled that Fury was obligated to face Wilder for the third time. Fury and Wilder will meet on July 24. They met at a press conference on Tuesday with Fury carrying the bulk of it while the 2008 Olympian sat down with his headphones on. After the presser, Wilder talked with select members of the media. He was asked if he would knockout Joshua if they ever square off.
"In a devastating fashion," Wilder bluntly told Sky Sports.
Before that response, Wilder discussed how Joshua was already making excuses to avoid him if he beats Fury and if "AJ" beats Oleksandr Usyk if the fight is made official.
“Without no excuses, no mandatories, nothing in the way. As I see it, they’re already making up excuses," Wilder said. "They already got a mandatory planned ahead. No one really wants to fight someone like me. I don’t blame them."
Back in October, Wilder had gone on a rant on Twitter because he felt that Fury was avoiding their trilogy bout and revealed that he turned down a more lucrative offer to battle Joshua than to fight "The Gypsy King".