Eric Molina opens negotiations to fight IBF champion Anthony Joshua in Manchester

Heavyweight contender Eric Molina has opened negotiations about a potential fight against Britain's IBF champion Anthony Joshua on 10 December. The 34-year-old Mexican-American could be in line to face the Olympic gold medal-winning star after Wladimir Klitschko ruled himself out of the fight in Manchester because of a minor injury.

Molina has lost three of his 28 professional bouts, including a defeat against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in June 2015. He has, however, won each of his last two fights and reportedly features on a two-man shortlist of potential opponents drawn up by Eddie Hearn, Joshua's promoter.

"Eddie Hearn has reached out to my handlers and they are now going over the logistics of a possible Joshua fight," Molina told World Boxing News. "These are just the beginning stages but I am hopeful we can announce a fight very soon. I will continue to train and prepare as if this fight has already been signed and made."

The other name reported to feature on Hearn's two-man shortlist is Liverpool's David Price, who recently claimed to have floored the heavyweight champion during a sparring session in 2011. Price, who has also lost three time as a professional, is confident he is the man to end Joshua's unbeaten record.

"I know I can knock out Joshua because I've done it before," Price told the BBC. "I put him down [in sparring] and he had to get helped out of the ring."

The 2008 Olympic bronze medallist insisted he has kept quiet until now about his achievement in sparring because he did not wish to humiliate Joshua. "I've kept it to myself for years because I felt bad for doing it," he explained. "And I wanted to protect the lad from people shouting him out because he got knocked out in a gym with 18oz gloves. People think Anthony Joshua is this colossus of a man with a great physique but I am convinced it can go wrong for him in a fight with me."