Deontay Wilder wants 50-50 split with Joshua

By Juan Flores WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder wants an even split of the revenue for his unification fight with IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua for their proposed fight in 2018.

Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) says he deserves a 50-50 split of the money against Joshua, because he’s considered the “man to beat” and the most feared fighter in the heavyweight division. Besides all that, Wilder says he’s a heavyweight world champion just like Joshua. Wilder also notes that the U.S is bigger than the UK in population. Wilder says the U.S is 3 times bigger in population than the UK, which is his way of saying he deserves a 50-50 split of the loot for the fight.

“We’re not going to get less than what it is,” said Wilder to 78SportsTV in discussing his mega-fight with Joshua. “It’s a 50-50 fight, period, point blank. No matter what he’s got going on his country, I’m the man to beat. Everybody knows this. Everyone knows I’m a beast. I’m their worst nightmare. When it comes to Deontay Wilder, me and Joshua will be big in 2018,” said Wilder.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has already rejected the idea of Wilder getting a 50-50 deal for the fight. In Hearn’s words, the fight will “Never” happen if Wilder insists on receiving an even 50-50 cut of the revenue. Hearn feels that Joshua is the much bigger commercial draw right now due to him selling out large stadiums in the UK, and brining in massive numbers of pay-per-view buys in his fights with Wladimir Klitschko, Carlos Takam and Eric Molina.

If Wilder sticks by his request of a 50-50 deal, it could result in the fight with Joshua not getting made unless Hearn gives in to his request. It’s unclear what number Hearn has in mind for the fight. If he’s talking about the same 80-20 split that was offered to WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, then there’s probably no way Wilder will ever agree to that. Deontay wants a fair deal for the Joshua fight. He’s not going to go for the idea of being insulted by an offer that is beneath his dignity to accept it.

“I end careers; that’s what I do,” said Wilder. “I also give brain loss. I give them brain damage where they can’t remember what happened in the fight,” said Wilder.

Wilder knocked out former WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne in the 1st round last Saturday night. That win was an attention-getter for Wilder, and his way of sending a message to Joshua what he intends on doing to him when he gets inside the ring.

Joshua riled Wilder up with his recent comments in an interview where he spoke of wanting to slap him around the ring. Joshua also mentioned that he would “eat him alive” after learning that Wilder weighed in at 220 pounds for the Stiverne fight. Joshua’s weight for his last 2 fights against Klitschko and Takam was 250 and 254. Joshua feels that with his big weight advantage of over 30 pounds, he’ll beat the slender 6’7” 220-pound Wilder. Wilder is a different type of heavyweight due to his height, reach, speed and power. Wilder’s height gives him the ability to get a lot of leverage on his punches, making him hit harder than normal fighters do hat weight the same as him at 220.

“I’m going to slap Deontay Wilder all around the ring,” said Joshua to IFL TV. ”I’m going to eat him alive. I teach these guys how to do business, and if these fights come off, it’s because of me. And if these fights don’t come off, it’s because of them. It’s as simple as that,” said Joshua.

Wilder doesn’t like the kind of talking that Joshua is doing, because he doesn’t take him seriously. Wilder also thinks Joshua is corny, and not understanding how he’s coming across by saying odd things.

“I don’t like his response for his comeback” said Wilder in responding to Joshua’s latest comment about wanting to slap him around the ring and “eat him alive.” “I hope that’s not actually him [saying these thing] corny things back to me. I mean business. I mean what I say. But to come back with this corny, ‘I’ll slap you across the face’ and ‘I’m going to put my jab down your throat’ or ‘I’m going to eat you.’ I hope that’s not him as a champion. He’s got a lot of learning to do when dealing with one of the masters, because when he gets in the ring with me, he will be one of my students, and I’ll teach him everything he needs to know. When I retire, he can come back and maybe claim his throne,” said Wilder.

Joshua clearly isn’t accustomed to trash talking, so he’s not going to be as good at is compared to other fighters. It would be better for Joshua just to stay serious, and focus on analyzing Wilder’s fighting style when criticizing him rather than resorting to trash talking that makes him sound behind the times.

“I can’t wait for that fight,” said Wilder. “Joshua can talk all he wants. The one thing he needs to do is go look at the Stiverne fight. Stiverne came in at 254. How much did Joshua weigh? He came in at 254. The key factor is weight. We seen in that fight how well I put 254 on the ground,” said Wilder.

Deontay sees 254 being the same, whether a fighter is fat or muscular. Deontay feels that Joshua is having just as many problems carrying around his weight as the flabby Bermane Stiverne, who weighed 254 pounds against Wilder. Wilder thinks Joshua needs to trim down some of the muscle, and focus instead on his speed and agility rather than continually getting bigger with each fight.

“The reason why we’re not talking about money is because we know what the deal is,” said Wilder. ”He’s going to try and shortcut us, and try and treat us like we’re lesser than what we are,” said Wilder about Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn. ”We will get paid what the fight is worth. We’re champions. He’s got to understand England is a small place compared to America. We’re triple the numbers in America than in the UK,” said Wilder.

The population of the U.S is closer to 5 times the size of the UK, and not 3 times as Wilder says. The population in the U.S is 310 million compared to 63 million for the UK. The U.S is 40 times bigger than the UK. I don’t know if that’s going to help Wilder get the 50-50 purse split for the Joshua fight. I don’t think Hearn cares that England is tiny compared to the U.S. He’s probably going to continue to point out that Wilder isn’t well known in his own country of the U.S.

It’s easy to understand why Hearn is doing that. By pointing out that Wilder isn’t well-known by the average America, he can give him a smaller cut of the revenue for the Joshua fight. The thing is, Joshua has the same problem in the U.S. He’s not well-known either. Hearn can’t say that Joshua is a recognizable fighter in the U.S with the average person on the street, because he’s not. He’s not at the Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali level, and likely never will be, given that he’s fighting only in the UK.