On the back of a $50m offer from Wilder, which now seems to have disintegrated, Hearn is attempting to find alternative avenues and still remains optimistic a deal can be done.
“I feel like they want 60-40. I think it’s 70-30. We’re 10 percent out. Can we discuss? Absolutely. But we’ve gotta have the correspondence, communication and the meeting,” Hearn told Sirius XM Boxing Radio.
“Hopefully we have them. Clearly not going to happen with Shelly Finkel.
“There are movements. It’s out in the public domain. Everyone’s under pressure to make the fight. So we’ve got to be active and try to get it done.
“I think it will [happen this year]. Anthony Joshua wants this fight badly. I believe Deontay Wilder wants this fight. Hopefully the people behind Deontay Wilder want this fight as well.”
With time ticking on an agreement, both fighters could agree to a December blockbuster with Joshua and Wilder completing their mandatories in the interim.
Alexander Povetkin and Dominic Breazeale have been ordered by the WBA and WBC, meaning summer defenses could take the immediate pressure of both champions.
Listen to Eddie Hearn being optimistic that Wilder-Joshua happens in 2018: https://twitter.com/SiriusXMBoxing/status/990031949002608640
At the Fights airs Mondays and Fridays from 6-8p ET on the first and only nationally-broadcast combat radio channel, SiriusXM RUSH 93.
The show is hosted by former New York State athletic commissioner Randy Gordon and former #1-ranked Heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney.
