Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder close to deal for heavyweight clash

The mouthwatering prospect of Anthony Joshua finally facing the American Deontay Wilder in a huge heavyweight title reunification fight has moved several steps closer, with the Englishman’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, saying he expects a deal for a showdown – which will most likely take place in February 2019 – to be agreed in the next month.

Before then, however, Joshua will almost certainly face the Russian Alexander Povetkin in September at either Wembley, Twickenham or Old Trafford. “The Povetkin deal will be finalised in the next 72 hours,” Hearn said. “The Wilder one is not, but we’re talking every day. A deal will be done with Wilder in the next month but we will probably move on a Povetkin fight before that. Wilder would be December at the earliest, probably February.”

Talks with the Wilder camp have been fractious and prolonged but Hearn hinted that significant progress has been made, even though he admitted there is still a way to go. “Wilder understands he has to go where Joshua tells him to and at the moment Joshua’s telling him: ‘You have to come to the UK,’” Hearn added. “He’s up for that, but there’s a lot of things that have to be worked out.”

Hearn left open the possibility that Wilder may even come before Povetkin but stressed it was more likely the Russian would be Joshua’s next opponent. “It’s an incredibly risky fight,” he said. “It might be a little bit of a mad fight to take before Wilder, but that’s Joshua. He doesn’t care. He wants a challenge; he doesn’t want easy fights.”

Dillian Whyte, meanwhile,has criticised Tyson Fury for selecting a “garbage” opponent, Sefer Seferi, for his comeback in Manchester on Saturday .

“I understand Fury has been out for a while but that is garbage,” said Whyte, who has agreed to fight the New Zealander Joseph Parker next month. “There are better guys than that, proper heavyweights he could have fought who would give him a challenge. It is a piss-take for boxing fans.

“He says he is the best fighter in the world now, that he can beat Wilder and Joshua and calls other guys ‘bums’, but then why is he not fighting anyone decent? He is basically fighting a scrub.

“I offered him a fight for September this year, after he would have had two warm-up fights, and he turned it down and rightly so because his timing will be off and I understand that. But don’t go around shouting you can beat everyone when you don’t want to take the fights.”