📸: Mark Robinson

Reports Deontay Wilder will be leaving a clash with Anthony Joshua on the shelf until 2020 are not strictly true, according to Shelly Finkel.

After an appearance on a podcast earlier this week, the take home from Finkel’s comments was that Joshua is off the menu for Wilder this year.

When asked for clarification of the matter, Finkel informed WBN that despite contact with DAZN, 2020 is not set in stone for undisputed talks to intensify.

“I am in discussions with John Skipper (about Deontay Wilder v Anthony Joshua). But nothing is set for 2020 at this point. It will be next year (at the earliest),” Finkel exclusively told World Boxing News.

Asked whether Wilder would definitely pursue Joshua in 2020 and if Luis Ortiz was on the menu next, Finkel added: “It’s not correct at this point on either.”

The news is a further hammer blow to Joshua, who has seen the tables turned in recent years. Wilder was the one chasing Joshua initially, although the Briton was too busy racking up UK title defenses to open negotiations.

Once contact was made, the gulf in terms on both sides was too much to make a successful deal.

Now, and with Wilder’s stock higher due to a fight with Tyson Fury, the American is set to focus on landing a rematch.

The pair drew in a highly-entertaining battle last December. Wilder and Fury could do it all again by the end of this year.

A trilogy encounter is then likely to follow in the spring of 2020. Wilder could then eye battles either Luis Ortiz, Adam Kownacki or his WBC mandatory.

This leaves Joshua in no man’s land in terms of grabbing all the belts. It does leave the Londoner free to go through his own mandatory obligations, though.

Kubrat Pulev (IBF), Oleksandr Usyk (WBO) and/or Manuel Charr / Trevor Bryan (WBA) are set to be in AJ’s immediate future once Andy Ruiz is dealt with on June 1st.







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Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is obviously disappointed at the developments.

“Gutted. I’m just glad now that finally, people are starting to see,” Hearn told YouTube channel IFL TV.

“It’s like the Ortiz thing (turning down Joshua for possible Wilder shot). Imagine if I hadn’t said something. It would have been non-stop stick.

“It’s depressing. I can’t be bothered to talk about it. I just hope the public have seen the truth,” he added.