Anthony Joshua will turn down £37m to fight Deontay Wilder in the US and insist it takes place in Britain

Anthony Joshua is ready to turn down a £37million offer to fight Deontay Wilder in the USA by insisting their world heavyweight unification bout takes place in the United Kingdom.

Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, told Telegraph Sport that a final decision over the staging of the fight will be finalised in the next three weeks. But Hearn said that Joshua, holder of the WBO, IBF and WBA titles, should be allowed to have home advantage against Wilder, of Alabama, who holds the WBC crown. 

Joshua is prepared to take a pay cut of more than £7m to fight in front of his home fans. Wembley Stadium, Twickenham Stadium and even the Olympic Stadium are three possible venues for the blockbuster contest to take place, with the preference being for an outdoor venue to stage the fight in September.

"One thing is for absolute certain, AJ wants Wilder next," Hearn said. "He’s made that clear. He also feels though, after talking to Rob McCracken, his trainer and manager, that this is a fight that should be delivered in the UK. One for the fans and two, he feels like he’s earned that right."

Joshua has been offered a baseline of $50m (£37m) to face Wilder in America by the WBC champion's team, but Hearn insisted: "AJ’s not really swayed by an extra £10m or £15m. He’d rather do the fight over here in front of his fans. 

"There have been talks ongoing with Alexander Povetkin’s team because he’s our mandatory opponent (for the WBA title). If it’s not Wilder it will almost certainly be Povetkin, which is also a tough fight. We’ll see how the conversations go, but I’d say we’ve got another three weeks to go."

Hearn told Telegraph Sport that he is still "70 per cent sure" that the Joshua-Wilder mega-fight will happen. "A lot of it depends on Wilder’s attitude towards it all. Certainly we don’t have a problem if Wilder was to win the fight, doing a second one in America. He would have earned that right. 

"Wilder has boxed in Sheffield before. He agreed to box in Russia for $4m (£2.9m). When we sat down it seemed a little bit weird to be traveling over to the US for a fight of this magnitude with so much on the line.

"As a fighter, AJ doesn’t care where the fight is. He doesn’t know enough about the game. But Rob was like, 'Why go to America?' There’s a difference in going when it [the money] is not life-changing.

"Yes, [fighting in the UK] is an advantage. But AJ genuinely is thinking more of the fans in his decision. How many would we be able to get in America? Maybe 6,000 to 10,000 fans. AJ said: 'Is that it?' When you’re dealing with 90,000 and he could bring an undisputed championship fight to Britain, AJ is genuinely interested in that stuff. The old saying about how you have to go to America to make it big, I don’t see that anymore. That’s not in AJ’s mind.

"I think Rob’s feeling is as an ex-fighter you should fight for these belts on your turf. There’s an interview AJ did after his last fight that has been played back a few times and he basically says, for years and years British fighters have had to go to America for the big fights."

That has changed given the huge popularity of the British heavyweight. "AJ will have to take a pay cut to fight in the UK and I don’t think he’s that bothered. The offer that they made, if that was open to a UK fight, we would have signed immediately. But obviously, they want to pay the money to get AJ to Wilder’s back yard. At the moment we’re all still talking and communication continues. But there is a feeling from our camp this undisputed fight should be in the UK.

"Rob who is trainer, manager and an ex-fighter, knows the advantage of being at home. AJ genuinely loves fighting in the UK. He knows there has never been an undisputed fight before, he was the first unification fight in Britain in the heavyweight division. So to do an undisputed heavyweight unification fight in the UK, would be historic. But whether Wilder’s team feel the same, like I said, those talks are ongoing. But that’s the general feeling from AJ and Rob."