For well over a year now, talks of a cross-continental heavyweight unification bout between the titan pairing of Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder have been at the forefront of professional boxing.

After it was announced last week, though, that AJ's next opponent would be Russia's Alexander Povetkin in September, it's left many fight fans wondering when the two will meet, or if Joshua will ever face the Bronze Bomber at all.

Controversy recently emerged over an alleged contract that was handed to Wilder, by Eddie Hearn, which outlined an invitation to a bout with Joshua, but the invitation included neither date or location, and a rather one-sided rematch clause which opted heavily in the favour of AJ.

Hearn has been slammed by Wilder's promoter Shelly Finkel, and after recent comments that Hearn has made about Joshua's next fight, he's got a lot of already annoyed boxing fans back on his case.

"The fans should be happy, they should not be disappointed, because to be honest with you, I think the fans are getting a much more competitive, and exciting fight in this one," Hearn told Sky Sports, speaking on the Joshua-Povetkin fight.

Come on now, Eddie.

The task of pairing fighters together to attract the most views and generate the most amount of income, more so in the log run, is inevitably going to be a tough one.

Hearn has already given us some memorable AJ fights in Dillian Whyte and Wladimir Klitschko, and he could well one day reward us with the unification bout we all want to see against Wilder.

It's true that the longer he delays the fight, the more attention and PPV it could gain. But then again, the longer that Hearn delays it, the more chance that people will lose interest.

Wilder will have to wait til at least the winter now to face Joshua, and let's hope the two can one day lock horns.