Mike Tyson Delivers Verdict On Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was not all that impressed with Anthony Joshua's title defense against Joseph Parker last month in Cardiff, United Kingdom.

Joshua (21-0) put his unbeaten record as well as his World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and International Boxing Organization (IBO) heavyweight titles on the line against then World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight champion Parker (24-1) in a title unification clash on March 31.

Despite the hype leading up to the event, the much-awaited contest was underwhelming as Joshua defeated Parker via unanimous decision to win the WBO belt.

The next opponent for "AJ" is ideally another title unification clash with unbeaten American knockout artist Deontay Wilder (40-0) who holds the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight belt. Wilder defeated Cuba's Luis Ortiz via knockout last month in Brooklyn, New York, in what many considered his toughest match-up yet.

The winner of a potential Joshua vs Wilder fight would not only be unanimously considered the best heavyweight fighter in the world but also make history by completely unifying the division and becoming the first to hold all four major belts at the same time (IBO being excluded).

Joshua did not impress Tyson in his last fight but the latter believes, with both boasting a combined 59 knockouts in their careers, it's inevitable that their fight will end that way.

"Joshua looked like he's the guy to do it [become undisputed champion] but in his last fight, he did not impress me in his last fight," Tyson told Showtime over the weekend. "[Wilder] is improving, he’s getting better. It will be a knockout. Somebody is getting knocked out."

Despite a fight between the two unbeaten champions being the one most boxing fans want to see next, there always seems to be obstacles preventing it from happening with the latest being the WBA ordering Joshua to enter negotiations with mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin, according to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn.

"This is the biggest fight in world boxing," Wilder said, as quoted on BBC. "You mean to tell me that a mandatory is going to overshadow a unification world title fight? We would rather have this big fight."

Wilder added that Hearn, who promotes Joshua, is using the prospect of a fight with Povetkin so that Joshua would be avoiding him even further.

"When Eddie wants an end-of-the-year fight, what he's trying to do is put another fight in place before getting to me," Wilder explained. "What makes sense to me, and the entire world, is having a summer fight [and then] a rematch end-of-the-year fight."

"I go over to England, whoop AJ and at the end of the year we come to Vegas — or wherever makes sense — and have a great Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. That sounds beautiful," he said. "We all know that Deontay Wilder wants the fight. Why would I shy away from it? They do not want this fight. Everything that has been going on that's been slowing up this fight has been on their behalf. Don't let them fool you. At the end of the day it is Joshua's decision. Do they work for him or does he work for them?"