The American had already put pen to paper on an AJ fight deal before disaster struck

DEONTAY WILDER has broken his silence on Francis Ngannou replacing him to fight Anthony Joshua.

Wilder at long last had put pen to paper on a deal to face Joshua in Saudi Arabia in March.

Deontay Wilder broke his silence on Francis Ngannou replacing him to fight Anthony Joshua

But on the night they both returned in December, the American suffered a shock defeat to Joseph Parker.

So Joshua – who beat Otto Wallin moments later – instead turned his attention to ex-UFC champion Ngannou.

Wilder, now back in training and looking for redemption, had little to say when probed on the crossover clash on March 8 in Riyadh.

He told ESNews: “Fun fight. I look at it as a fun fight. May the best man win.”

Ngannou made his boxing debut in October and astonishingly floored Tyson Fury despite losing a controversial points decision.

Fury, 35, progressed into an undisputed title decider with Oleksandr Usyk, 37, now postponed till May 18 due to an eye injury.

So Ngannou, 37, has been forced to wait for a rematch and instead turned his attention to Joshua, 34.

And Wilder, 38, meanwhile is plotting a comeback following his loss to Parker, 32, as he reflected on the loss.

He said: “I’m about to shock the world for the second time, for sure.

“We’re just picking up the pieces, a lot of lessons have been learned and a lot of blessings have come in the midst of the lessons.

“It’s just something I needed. I’ve been doing a lot of things for a lot of people for the last several years.

“Now we’re just trying to be selfish at this point in time. We’re not really calling it selfish, we’re calling it self-focussed.”