Deontay Wilder has goaded long-time rival Anthony Joshua by suggesting the IBF, WBA and WBO champion is now “begging” to fight him.

The American maintained his unbeaten record and kept his WBC strap after the split decision draw with Tyson Fury earlier this month despite being dominated for long stretches in Los Angeles.

A rematch between the two appears almost certain after the controversial nature of the result but Joshua, who as yet does not have a next opponent scheduled, has long been a target.

Wilder and Joshua have been in negotiations over a world title unification clash for some time with the Alabama-born fighter insisting Eddie Hearn and the rest of the Brit’s team are growing increasingly desperate.

“They’re definitely begging now. He’s trying to reach out all of a sudden,” he said on Joe Rogan’s podcast. “His management have been trying to reach out to mine as well.

“He could have had this opportunity, he had many opportunities; he could have fought Luis Ortiz, he could have fought me, he had a chance to fight [Tyson] Fury.

“But people want to know who’s the best, especially after seeing this Fury fight, and I’ve been trying to show people who is the best. I’m always going to say I’m the best until I’m defeated.”

The WBC have sanctioned a rematch between Wilder and Fury but Hearn insists the American should choose to fight his man next instead.

“The WBC thing is totally irrelevant and shame on any reporter that reported it as ‘The WBC order a rematch’ because they haven’t ordered a rematch,” he said.

“They’ve said they’ll sanction a rematch. There is a mandatory due and that’s Dominic Breazeale and they’re basically saying they would approve this fight – ‘we encourage it and we would sanction it, we basically give it our blessing.’”