Anthony Joshua and the $100 million dollar fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Damian Poole

I’m going to keep this article as short as possible. But I want to cover all the news surrounding the unification fight between Anthony Joshua – Deontay Wilder and all the misleading information that’s been posted around by Wilder’s managers.

We all know by now the back story that has brought us to the Joshua vs Wilder fight. Wilder has being trying to cash-in against Anthony ever since the Brit became a PPV star. And now that Anthony has Joseph Parkers WBO belt along with IBO, WBA and IBF, he Joshua has now set his sights on Wilder’s trinket that he holds so dear to his waist.

Ring side after defeating Parker in a dominating fashion, Joshua said to Sky Sports. “You’re asking me if I want to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world? IBO WBO IBF WBA. 21 professional fights, 6 world champion fights. Does that not show you what route I’m going in. Forget the hype I’m not into that everyone knows me better than that. I’m about business so let’s the business done. So, you want that fight with Deontay Wilder? Just like Dillan Whyte said, LET’S GO BABY, LET’S GOOO!!”

So, from that statement by Anthony, we can put to rest the whole notion that he is ducking Wilder. There is no other way to interpret that other than the fight is on. But the wilder fans who I will now address as “Wilder-ets” for simplicity reasons, original argument with Anthony was with the Brit not fighting Wilder when he was called out. Hence the reason the Wilder-ets though AJ was ducking. But would you believe it, some of the Wilder’ets still want to believe Anthony is ducking even though their last argument was debunked. Now the Wilder-ets are singing a new tune where they feel Anthony is ducking Wilder with the latest offer Hearn has for Wilder. So, let’s take a closer look at this offer and see what’s on the table and who said what exactly.

A week or so after the Parker fight, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn sent over an attractive offer to Wilder’s manager Shirley Finkle (as Eddie likes to call him). Anthony Joshua said to Sky Sports, “We offered them a lucrative deal and we are just waiting to hear if he’s serious or not. They like to jump on social media, rather than emailing us back in a professional manner.”

First of all, Anthony is referring to is Team Wilder’s response from Eddie Hearn’s offer. Instead of emailing Hearn back, they went onto social media to express their disapproval of the offer. I don’t know if this is just bad management skills or a poor attempt at promoting the fight. But airing one’s dirty laundry to social media is not how you do business. Is very unprofessional. Maybe Shelly Finkle should seek some promo advice from David Higgins, after all he did a good job at selling the Joshua-Parker fight whereas Team Wilder have a hard time selling the biggest fight of Wilder career to 14,000 fans.

Lastly, this lucrative deal that Eddie Hearn has offered Deontay Wilder is estimated to be around $12.5 million which is X10 bigger than Deontay’s average payday. I know what some of you Wilder’ets are thinking, Deontay earned $2.1 million against Luis Ortiz etc… Well if you look at Wilder’s previous fights against Bermane Stiverne, Gerald Washington and Chris Arreola, $1.2 million would be about average Wilder received from those bouts. It was Ortiz that brought in the extra money not the Bronze Bomber. Do you really think Wilder would earn $2.1 million again against Dominic Breazeale? Nah, neither did I. Anthony’s estimated earnings for this fight would be around $25-30 million, which is nowhere near X10 more than his last 3 fights. So why does Wilder thinks he is entitled to a 10-fold pay increase when he is the B-side that brings nothing to the table? Heck, Joseph Parker didn’t even get half of what’s being offered to Deontay Wilder according Hearn. Yet they both have similar stats. Undefeated, world champions, young and dangerous.

Wilder’s management team have release some incorrect misleading information, maybe an attempt to discredit Anthony and Hearn. They claim the $12.5 offer was a take it or leave it deal with Joshua looking elsewhere if Wilder doesn’t accept. As a result, Wilder’ets and some YouTube boxing channels such as the heavily bias ego boxing, have run wild with this story. Personally, I waited to hear both sides of the story before I made my judgement on the situation. Well I didn’t have to wait too long as Eddie Hearn was asked on twitter if this was true and his sweet simple answer was “NO.”

Another fallacy from Wilder’s managers, which has the Wilder-ets and bias YouTubes chomping at the bit, surrounds the revenue this fight could make. Team Wilder claim this fight could make $100 million. I have no idea where they are getting this figure from. But they sure as hell are not basing it off Wilder’s popularity. Even Eddie Hearn and AJ don’t believe this fight won’t make $100 million. Eddie Hearn said on Twitter, “At what point are you going to realize it’s nowhere near a 100m £ or $ fight?” personally, I believe this fight could make $100 if it was promoted correctly like I pointed out in my last article, ‘Is Anthony ducking or is Wilder A Chicken? But Deontay doesn’t want to wait so this fight is getting rushed through. And that’s why it won’t make $100. Cause and effect!

But let’s entertain the idea of a $100 million fight. If that’s the case, and Wilder’s managers really believe it. Then why don’t the make Eddie Hearn a generous counter offer of $60 million, effectively a 60/40 split in favor of the A side. Anthony Joshua said to Sky Sports “If it is a $100 million fight and they are happy with taking 60-40, I’ll take 50-50. Give me $50 million dollars up front and I swear I’ll take that fight tomorrow.” Wilder’s managers are currently preparing a counter off to Eddie Hearn’s $12 million and I will bet my

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