Anthony Joshua has slammed Deontay Wilder for "starving fans" of the chance to see them face off in a heavyweight unification bout.
Wilder's promoter, Shelly Finkel, frustrated Joshua this week as he revealed they do not plan to revisit the fight until 2020 at the earliest.
Wilder's camp insist the fight will eventually happen, with roads leading to a showdown on the DAZN platform in the future.
But Joshua is sceptical regarding the Wilder camp pushing back the time frame to meet - and he accused Wilder of "making a name off the back of his success".
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"It's a fan sport isn't it?" Joshua told Sporting News .
"Wilder's just starving the fans from an undisputed heavyweight championship fight. Wilder has smart people around him, he must know what he's doing or be saying it to try and throw me off, who knows?
"He might want the fight next, but I don't see why he would want to wait until 2020, because 2020 turns into 2021, you know what I mean?
"We need to get these negotiations on the way now in the background, I'll focus on my fight, but he's got people representing him, I've got people representing that can have these conversations so we can have the fight in 2019.
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"I don't know why he must wait so long. I can't control the division, I think people assume that we were the ones that are dodging people, they did a great campaign to make a name off the back of our success on this side of the pond and with all that talking and hearsay, none of them have stepped up to fight.
"So, what can I say, talk is cheap."
Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, has also labelled the situation as "depressing".
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"Gutted. I’m just glad now that finally people are starting to see. It’s like the Ortiz thing, imagine if I hadn’t said something, it would have been non-stop stick," Hearn told IFL TV.
"Depressing. I can’t be bothered to talk about it. I just hope the public have seen the truth."
Joshua will face Andy Ruiz at Madison Square Garden on June 1 after he was confirmed as a replacement for Jarrell Miller.
