{"id":557110,"date":"2026-04-29T15:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/557110\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:08:12","slug":"deontay-wilders-team-sum-up-anthony-joshua-choosing-alternative-opponent-for-next-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/557110\/","title":{"rendered":"Deontay Wilder’s team sum up Anthony Joshua choosing alternative opponent for next fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Joshua\u2019s two-fight 2026 deal has been announced, with Deontay Wilder<\/a> once again not part of the Briton\u2019s plans, despite a resurgence.<\/p>\n

Wilder\u2019s team have now reacted to the news that Joshua will instead face Kristian Prenga before a fight with Tyson Fury<\/a> at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u2018AJ\u2019 was called out by Fury following the latter\u2019s triumph over Arslanbek Makhmudov two weeks ago, but he refused to publicly agree to the long-awaited showdown without a warm-up fight or fully negotiated deal.<\/p>\n

Since then, another of Joshua\u2019s long-term rivals, Wilder, has been linked as a possible summer opponent, in order to prepare him for a clash with \u2018The Gypsy King\u2019. However, on Monday, it was instead confirmed that the two-time world champion will face lesser-known Albanian, Prenga, in a lower risk return<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Sky Sports Boxing<\/a>, Shelly Finkel, who manages \u2018The Bronze Bomber\u2019 revealed that he is neither disappointed or surprised by Joshua\u2019s opponent, simply summing up the situation as the \u2018same old story\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t be disappointed about something that never was. Eddie never reached out to us and Joshua obviously had no intention of fighting Deontay Wilder. Same old story, just a new date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst Hearn may not have made an approach for a fight with Wilder, he is targeting a scrap against the former WBC heavyweight world champion for one of his other heavyweight contenders \u2013 Jarrell Miller.<\/a><\/p>\n

As for Joshua, he will take on Prenga on Saturday, July 25, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, looking to tee up one of the biggest fights in British boxing history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua\u2019s two-fight 2026 deal has been announced, with Deontay Wilder once again not part of the Briton\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-557110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}