Shelly Finkel To Meet With DAZN Soon, Plans To Lock In Deontay Wilder’s Next Fight
After the latest of Deontay Wilder‘s knockouts heard and seen around the world, public demand for Wilder to face either Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury next reached a fever pitch this past weekend.
With Wilder having successfully defended his WBC heavyweight title with a devastating first-round KO win over Dominic Breazeale on May 18, Wilder is now open to explore any and all challenges. Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel has now stated that he plans to meet with DAZN in the hopes of exploring once again a potential fight against Anthony Joshua for the unified WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF titles down the line.
Shelly Finkel says he will see @DAZN_USA Chairman John Skipper. Says he plans to lock in Wilder’s next opponent next week, with Fury, Joshua and Ortiz the three finalists.
It most certainly won’t be Fury and if a deal needs to be done next week, it won’t be AJ.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) May 19, 2019
I asked Shelly Finkel if, when he meets with @JohnSkipper and @DAZN_USA, if there is a number or a type of contract he could present to make AJ-Wilder next. Finkel said yes, but declined to offer specifics.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) May 19, 2019
During the post-fight press conference on May 18, Finkel further elaborated on his thoughts regarding making a fight against Joshua and Fury next. Finkel has named those two fighters, plus Luis Ortiz, as potential opponents for Wilder next after Ortiz entered the ring to confront Wilder in the hopes of making a rematch of their March 2018 slugfest a reality.
Finkel said he’s been in touch with both DAZN, the broadcast platform where Joshua has his fights streamed in the United States, and Top Rank Boxing, the American promotional company that signed Fury earlier this year, and will continue to keep in touch and seeing what can be made Wilder to have the biggest fights in the heavyweight division.
“First of all, Deontay will fight anyone and he was willing to fight Joshua for very little comparative to what he was worth and when someone wants to make a fight they make it. When we wanted to get Fury, we overpaid him. We gave him anything he wanted in order to make the fight and Deontay is a man who doesn’t make excuses. I’m in very close negotiations with John Skipper, I’m gonna see him next week, I’m in constant touch with Top Rank. All of those fights are gonna happen, whether they happen next or two fights down the line, you will see all of them in the near future and they’ll be on terms that are acceptable to Deontay, not begged by Deontay. It’s not done, it’s not done. This coming week, we hope to lock in one of them for the next fight. There’s three guys out there [Ortiz, Fury and Joshua]. One of those will be done then and very shortly after, one of them will be locked in for the next one,” Finkel said.
This isn’t the first time that Wilder’s team and DAZN met up to iron out a deal that would have Wilder face Joshua, but the initial meetings did not result in anything concrete. Soon after, it was announced that Wilder would in fact face Breazeale.
