By George Mills, courtesy of The Daily Star

DEONTAY WILDER claimed it would be “easy” to agree a deal to fight Anthony Joshua and revealed the exact split he would accept to make it happen.

The Bronze Bomber beat Luis Ortiz last weekend to leave himself perfectly set up for a shot at Joshua, should the British IBF and WBA champion emerge victorious against WBO champion Joseph Parker at the end of the month.



Negotiations between Wilder’s camp and Team Joshua entered the preliminary stage following AJ’s breathtaking win over Wladimir Klitschko last year.

But talks quickly broke down with both men reportedly unhappy at the other’s demands.

Speaking to talkSPORT last night though, 32-year-old Wilder suggested he would be only too happy to return to the table in order to thrash out a deal.

“Nothing has been offered, nothing,” Wilder said.

“Even when [Eddie] Hearn and his father [Barry] came to America last year, they weren’t talking about Joshua.

“Joshua wasn’t in their mind. They were saying ‘you guys and Dillian Whyte’. Like I said before, I would fight Dillian Whyte no problem. That’s easy.

“As long as you have Joshua on the end of that, we’re good. And they didn’t even want to make that happen.

“That was the only thing that was going. There wasn’t anything about me and Joshua discussed. Nothing. Not one thing.



“They come back and said we didn’t make an offer, we didn’t reach an agreement. How can an offer be made when the main subject wasn’t even discussed – we’re talking about Wilder vs Joshua.”

Wilder, according to figures, reportedly pocketed $2.1m to face Ortiz at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, last weekend.

But he is said to have turned down an eye-watering $4.5m offer from Hearn to fight Whyte to do so.

Explaining his decision, Wilder continued: “The people want to see the biggest and the baddest and the best fight. Most of these people are going to say this is the best of their era.

“Some people are not going witness greatness like this ever in their lifetime again.

“You’ve got two great guys, two undefeated guys that have knocked out everybody placed in front of them, in their prime. One from the UK, one from the USA, coming together. What a special night, what a special fight.

“It doesn’t get any better than that special moment.”

“I’m going to offer you 60/40 split in his [Joshua’s] favour first fight, rematch clause, winner gets it the other way around – are you accepting that?” host Adam Catterall asked.

“I’m there,” Wilder replied.