Anthony Joshua may be fighting Joseph Parker on Saturday evening in Cardiff, but a lot of boxing fans still have their eyes focused on another man; Deontay Wilder.

Despite the fact that the Bronze Bomber may not even be in attendance for the unification bout, people are talking up the WBC champion as Joshua's next opponent.

Boxing experts and fans mostly accept that Wilder is the biggest threat to AJ's unbeaten record, but Eddie Hearn is certainly not impressed with his decision not to be in Cardiff.

"I’ve been told he’s not coming," Hearn confirmed. "The entire epicentre of heavyweight boxing is in Cardiff on Saturday. How bad do you think he wants the fight if he don’t come? Don’t give me all that, “All I want to do is unify the division”.

"Come [to Cardiff]. You’re getting paid. You’ve got a lovely hotel room. It’s not like it’s a chore. This is your job, but he don’t want it. He don’t want to get mixed up with Dillian."

So what does Wilder have to say for himself? Well, the Bronze Bomber went full savage-mode in his response to the Matchroom promoter.

“I expected Eddie to do that because he needs something to fool the people,” Wilder told BoxingScene.com.

“He needs something to tell them. He’ll tell them anything but the truth. Everybody knows I’m not scared. Everybody in America and half of the people over there in England know Deontay Wilder ain’t scared of no man.

"I just beat the most craftiest, skillful guy in boxing [Luis Ortiz]. We know who’s scared here. We know who’s been trying to get this fight done.

“Joshua ain’t even mention my name, but I’ve mentioned his name. They don’t want this fight, and so they needed something to fuel their fans up with the excuses, to continue to keep this going.

"But a lot of the UK fans are waking up, seeing the type of person he really is. They ain’t feeding into the bullsh*t that he’s selling.”

Wilder then confirmed why he would not be in attendance on Saturday.

“My whole decision of not going to the fight was definitely a team decision, my decision at the end of the day,” Wilder said.

“But it was a turnoff when Joshua and his people said that I wouldn’t be allowed in the ring, that he would have extra security and a restraining order and all that stuff. He’s on record saying that.

"It’s a turnoff to me. The point is why be there if you can’t hype up the biggest heavyweight fight in a long time? They say they want me to hype the fight up, they want me to raise the profile of the fight. What better way than free advertising? That was free advertising. Nobody had to pay for that.

“But they don’t want this fight. They don’t wanna fight me, and that proved it. For that reason, we felt like we didn’t need to go. Because [Hearn’s] whole focus, his whole, main concern, is about another fighter [Dillian Whyte].

"It ain’t got nothing to do with me and Joshua. That’s his whole high right now. He’s not trying to make the Joshua fight. He’s trying to make another fight that we don’t want.”