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A week on Saturday, Wilder will defend his WBC heavyweight title against Fury at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The winner of the fight will almost certainly set up a unification bout

with Joshua, the owner of the WBA (Super), WBO, IBF and IBO titles. Joshua will no doubt be watching the contest closely, though he won’t be present to take part in a face-off with the

bout’s victor. “We won’t be in Los Angeles,” Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said. “We have Matchroom’s first Italy show in Florence on November 30. “AJ has commercial work and he does not

want to re-schedule it.” A unification bout between Joshua and Wilder was in the works earlier this year. However, the pair’s respective teams couldn’t come to terms before the WBA ordered

Joshua to face Alexander Povetkin, who he knocked out in September. Hearn is keen to resume talks with Wilder’s representatives should the American get past Fury. But if a deal doesn’t come

to fruition, he’ll turn his attention to booking a rematch between Joshua and Dillian Whyte. “It depends on the Wilder fight really,” Hearn told Sky Sports. “I think if the Wilder fight

doesn’t happen, then we could go [Dillian] Whyte, if he beats [Dereck] Chisora, and then [Oleksandr] Usyk after that, but a lot depends on what Usyk wants to do, and whether he feels like

he’s ready. “I think the AJ fight is a very, very, very tough fight for Usyk. AJ is very fast, and he’s very mobile, and I think Usyk will do better against slower heavyweights, who aren’t

as mobile. “But it’s going to end up being a monster fight at some point.”