At the tip-top of fights that fans clamor to see get made ASAP is the Anthony Joshua-Deontay Wilder heavyweight title consolidation match.

Showtime is contracted with Joshua to show his events in the U.S. So, naturally, I asked Sho boxing boss Stephen Espinoza when he came to the Everlast “Talkbox” studio about the latest on an AJ vs. Deontay tango.

“Personally, I think the time is now,” the executive told me. “You can always make a case for additional marketing impact. And I’m not going to use the dreaded ‘M’ word … I think it’s most advantageous to each of them if they take this big fight now. ‘Now’ meaning as the next fight.

“I believe that it will happen, it is more likely to happen before the end of the year than not. That’s a personal opinion, not particularly informed, because it is very much still up in the air. I think it’s a coin flip where it happens.”

Will it happen with Showtime?

“Yes, I firmly believe whether it happens now or it happens next year, it will be with us,” he stated.

Espinoza respects AJ saying that he wants to reward his fans by keeping a Wilder fight in the U.K., but he believes that U.K. fans would like coming here, to the U.S., to watch such an event. In the end, he reiterated that he thinks it will happen by the end of the year.

Feel free to listen to the whole interview here.