Hearn: Whyte favorite to face Joshua in April

The promoter says Deontay Wilder’s team won’t communicate at this point.

Promoter Eddie Hearn says that Dillian Whyte has become the favorite to face Anthony Joshua next April at Wembley Stadium, saying that Deontay Wilder can no longer be considered because his team simply isn’t communicating.

“As it goes right now, he’s the favorite, because Wilder won’t communicate with us, or his team. At the moment, that fight looks impossible, because how can we get it made, if they won’t reply?”

The Joshua and Wilder teams had talks for a fight on September 22, which would have fully unified the heavyweight division for the first time in forever, but those didn’t get done. Instead, Joshua is facing Alexander Povetkin, his WBA mandatory challenger, on that date, and Wilder is fighting Tyson Fury in November on Showtime pay-per-view from Las Vegas.

Joshua has a two-fight deal with Wembley Stadium, the first the Povetkin bout and the second tentatively scheduled for April 13, 2019. And as much as it looks like Whyte is now in the driver’s seat there, things change. There could be so much money in a fight between Joshua and the Wilder-Fury winner that a deal gets hammered out, and Whyte is left on the outside looking in.

As for what’s next for Whyte, Hearn is pushing a rematch with Dereck Chisora, but Whyte has publicly stated he’s not interested in that. Americans Dominic Breazeale, who has said he wants the bout, and Jarrell Miller are also being considered, according to Hearn.