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Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder a Eddie Hearn 'scam' - Shelly Finkel

Boxing

Anthony Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn had no intention of making the heavyweight unification fight with Deontay Wilder as the Britain's next fight according to the American's manager Shelly Finkel.

With Joshua likely to fight WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin next and Hearn having announced a two-fight deal between with Wembley stadium, Finkel insisted the negotiations to have Wilder fight Joshua next was a scam.

"It was a total scam. They had no intention of fighting Deontay next and that's fine, just say it," Finekl told FightHype. "Don't waste everyone's time, don't try and make Deontay look like the guy ducking out of a fight or anything. Just say it I want to Povetkin next and I'm not fighting anyone else next and after that I can fight. He admits it that it was a total scam here. He had a two-fight deal with Wembley."

Finkel insists they were willing to comply with most of the demands asked of them, from giving AJ $50 million and providing proof of those funds to AJ's lawyer, to giving Joshua details of the deal of the fight, that it would be either in New York or Las Vegas in November or December.

"Then he doesn't answer and they say we'll give you a better offer. They up the offer to $12.5m to $15m. They said it would be the next fight and there would be a rematch clause. So we said we accept, send the contract. Then the contract comes and it has no date for the fight, no arena for the fight, the rematch clause says if he loses we redo the fight, if he wins he doesn't have to fight again.

"So I wrote him and asked him to clarify where and when is the fight. He never answers and then he sends back 'I'll supply you the dates' and I said you'll have to have the contract back by Friday. We wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything else."

Hearn has made it known that the WBA were getting impatient with how long AJ's negotiations with Wilder were lasting and therefore ordered the fight with Povetkin, but Finkel claims he didn't know the Brit was under pressure from the WBA.

"We were never told 'the WBA is pressing me, you've got to give me an answer'. If you want a deal done, you do that. You say, 'hey Shelly I can't wait until Friday, I gotta have this back by Monday late or I'm going to lose the WBA [title].

"So he gets Gilberto Mendoza to send a letter that 'you got to tell us by tomorrow'. Very funny, on Sunday I send him a letter, 12 hours later there is a letter by Mendoza. Coincidence.

"He never said 'hey Shelly I've only got 24 hours, if you really want the fight get it to me. He never said look we can do Sept. 22nd at Wembley. he never said you're right it should be a two-match thing but they would both have to be at Wembley. None of that. He didn't want the fight."

Finkel doesn't believe AJ is afraid of Wilder but that Hearn is trying to do the best for his guy. He has no doubt that Joshua will defeat Povetkin but that it is a "stupid fight".

"Have a little balls and just say we are not ducking Wilder. This is what we feel is in the best interest of Joshua. Here is what we are doing. We will make an offer to fight Wilder April 13th, Wembley stadium, 2019, this is the conditions. 

"We would have said no, here is what we want. That would have been the changes we said before. Now they are saying it is 100,000 people and I should take the same money but it's 10,000 more people? Come on."

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