Deontay Wilder emerges as shock contender for Anthony Joshua's return fight as Dillian Whyte rematch is ruled out
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DEONTAY WILDER has emerged as a shock contender to fight Anthony Joshua in a bid to settle their storied score.
The two spent years in dragged out failed negotiations - leaving an undisputed blockbuster to fall by the wayside.
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Dentay Wilder has emerged as a shock contender to fight Anthony Joshua
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Now they are coming off defeats with Wilder stunned by Joseph Parker in December 2023 and then knocked out last June by Zhilei Zhang.
Both times it cost the American a revived clash with Joshua - who is yet to return since being KO'd by Daniel Dubois in September.
Wilder, 39, faces Tyrrell Herndon in Kansas on June 27 and Frank Smith - CEO of Matchroom Boxing who promote AJ - says a fight with Joshua is possible.
He told Boxing News: "Do you know what fight I love? If he comes through his warm-up, Deontay Wilder.
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"This sport is about narrative. It's about buying into fights that people have interest in and that's a fight that everyone would still have interest in.
"Regardless of whether it didn't happen five years ago, people still want to see it now. So hopefully he can come through his fight."
Dillian Whyte was mentioned as another potential option for Joshua - who won their bout in 2015 by stoppage.
They were due to rematch in 2023 but it was cancelled after Whyte, 37, returned an "adverse finding" in his drug testing.
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He has since boxed in Gibraltar and Ireland after blaming the failed drug test on a contaminated supplement.
Whyte was due to return on Fabio Wardley's undercard in Ipswich but he pulled out to focus on a summer showdown with Lawrence Okolie.
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And Smith - alongside Whyte's promoter - ruled out a fight with Joshua as a result.
Smith told iFL TV: "No Joshua."
Joshua, 35, recently underwent surgery on an elbow injury that has kept him sidelined since defeat to Dubois, 27.
And with Tyson Fury, 36, still retired off the back of two losses to Oleksandr Usyk, 38, AJ has been left to look elsewhere for an opponent.
Smith added: "There's so many options out there. It just also depends on what he wants to do, if he wants to go for the world title again.
"What does he want to chase? Tyson Fury is a name that obviously we've spoken about a million times but it gets boring after a while saying the same thing.
"So let's get him back in the gym, get him fit, get him active, get him ready and then we'll go from there."
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