After Anthony Joshua defeated Joseph Parker convincingly at the weekend to unify his world heavyweight title belts, fellow champion Deontay Wilder's co-promoter has had some harsh words to say about the British star.

Lou DiBella has even gone to the extent of accusing Joshua of using "illegal" tactics against Parker to secure the victory in Cardiff on Saturday.

After the fight, AJ made it very clear Wilder is his preferred next opponent but both camps have regularly clashed when discussing the likelihood of an agreement being reached. 

But Wilder's controversial promoter believes Joshua is fearful of facing the American this year, during an appearance on SiriusXM's Boxing Radio Show.

“I think when everyone around you is afraid, it’s gonna make you think too," DiBella said, per The Express.

"Do I think he’s afraid? Justifiably. I gotta be honest with you – I saw a lot of stuff in that Parker fight that I think a lot of other people saw, particularly people on the other side of the pond and are hesitant to talk about.

"Even though he clearly won the fight, I saw a guy that clearly didn’t want to take a risk. I saw a guy who didn’t want to engage."

Despite Joshua convincingly beating New Zealand-Samoan Parker on the scorecards, many fans were disappointed that they didn't see Joshua add to his knockouts against a smaller fighter.

And DiBella thinks AJ was so scared of being hurt by Parker, he deliberately pulled the tape down off his own gloves during the fight so the referee would have to call a timeout mid-round and kill any momentum his opponent had. 

"Parker has a decent jab and is a good fighter, better boxer than a lot of people thought but not a huge puncher," DiBella added.

"I didn’t see Anthony Joshua taking any chances in that fight at all. And in fact, I saw Anthony Joshua get buzzed by Joseph Parker and then pull his own tape off his glove to create his own timeout, and I gotta be honest with you, that made me lose a little bit of respect.”

Eddie Hearn has supposedly been in talks with Deontay Wilder's team since the Parker win to try and get this fight arranged which will finally unify all the belts and crown the undisputed world heavyweight champion.