Deontay Wilder says he wants to fight Anthony Joshua after Tyson Fury talks collapsed in Africa – ‘It’s still the number one fight in the world’

While a fight with Tyson Fury has fallen through for Anthony Joshua, it seems a clash with Deontay Wilder could be on the cards.

Back in 2018, when Joshua held the unified WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight world titles and Wilder was the WBC champion the pair could have fought for the undisputed heavyweight crown.

There was even an offer from Wilder to Joshua to take the fight for $50million, but the public nature of the negotiations caused the fight to collapse.

Now, both men are without belts and in need of an opportunity that could catapult them back into world title contention.

Joshua almost had that chance after he was called out by Fury, but once again, the fight never came to fruition and now he is looking to fight someone else in December, with Otto Wallin reportedly a potential opponent.

On Saturday night, Wilder will make his comeback to boxing when he takes on Robert Helenius for his first fight since being knocked out in his trilogy bout against Fury a year ago.

If both Wilder and Joshua come through their next challenges, they could be perfectly poised to clash next year and ‘The Bronze Bomber’ is certainly game.

“I would love to do that fight in Africa,” Wilder told BBC Sport.

“It’s still the number one fight in the world for everyone. Everywhere I go, people always talk about me versus Joshua.

“We both have roots from there, I think it would be an amazing place to have it, to go back home. To go back to the motherland.

“A continent full of our people. I can just see that being an amazing fight, win, lose or draw.

“I think we’ll get the respect and love from all the people over there.”

Wilder also took the time to critique Joshua’s most recent performance against Usyk, as well as giving some gentle encouragement to the Brit.

“I just felt he was very cautious,” Wilder said. “For me it looks like he has a real serious stamina problem. I feel like he didn’t want to exchange a lot because of that.

“It allowed him to fall back a little bit and not allow him to throw certain punches and combinations. I think if he fixed that you would see a better Joshua, not just in that fight but fights to come.

“I know if he’s able to get everything together, stamina and all that, I think you’ll see a different Anthony Joshua.”