Eddie Hearn Believes Fighters Do Not ‘Fear’ Deontay Wilder

Wilder has long-eyed a fight against Anthony Joshua. Talking to FightHype, Hearn revealed that after losing four out of his last five fights, Wilder has lost his fear factor and might not have much of a shot against Joshua.

“ I think the fight’s not going to tell us too much but just to get that confidence of a win. If he struggles against this guy, he’s got to pack it in. But hopefully, he can win well, and, you know, we’d sign to fight Deontay Wilder,”  he said before turning his attention towards a potential Wilder vs AJ showdown. “It’s not a fight that I rule out, but people don’t give Wilder much shot against AJ right now, but hopefully, he can start looking good again,”

While Hearn does not rule out the possibility of a Joshua fight, he wants Wilder to keep winning fights and proving himself to be a worthy opponent.

Wilder might not have been the best boxer, skill-wise; however, he made up for it with his iron fists and a hunger for victory. But Hearn feels that this hunger has been missing from his recent performances, which has, in turn, pressed his opponents to undermine him as a fighter.

“It’s funny how people can be so fearful of a fighter, and then all of the sudden have no fear whatsoever. I don’t think anybody would now fear fighting Deontay Wilder, where at a point everybody thought, ‘Oh my, this guy is the biggest puncher in the history of the sport,’ and now everyone wants to fight him. So, we shall see,” he said.

“We’ve Had Many Opportunities”

Wilder was last seen in the ring almost a year back, where he lost against Zhilei Zhang in Riyadh. Talking about his comeback, he revealed that he had to ensure he was physically and mentally well before fighting again.

“We’ve had many opportunities, but we’ve had to get a lot of things out the way like recovery,” he said while talking on DAZN’s Ariel x Ade: The Boxing Show. “We’ve been doing many different things, staying in shape most of all because we knew I was going to return. We just did not have the date to return because of all the injuries I had and the different things outside as well that was going on. We wanted to make sure that I was fully healthy, physically, mentally, and emotionally.”