Deontay Wilder wants $7M for Dillian Whyte fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn wants WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) to get his fighter #5 WBC Dillian Whyte (21-1, 15 KOs) a title shot in what would be a voluntary defense for Wilder in September or October or possibly later. Deontay has a mandatory defense due against Bermane Stivern, the #1 WBC ranked contender.

Stiverne isn’t going to want to step out of the picture while Wilder takes a fight against Whyte. I don’t see Siverne wanting to wait any longer than he already has.

The money that Hearn is offering isn’t nearly enough for Wilder to take the fight. Wilder says Hearn is only offering him $3 million. He wants at least $7 million to fight Whyte. Wilder doesn’t like the fact that Hearn is offering him the 29-year-old Whyte rather than IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. That’s the guy that Wilder wants. He doesn’t want a fighter that was knocked out by Joshua 2 years ago in 2015.

Hearn is obviously hoping that Whyte can beat Wilder to win his World Boxing Council heavyweight title. Hearn would then be able to setup an in house fight between his two Matchroom sport fighters Joshua and Whyte in a unification match. It would bring in a lot of pay-per-view buys on Sky Box Office just like the first fight between the two British heavyweights did in 2015 when Joshua stopped Whyte in the 7th round.

If the $3 million offer from Hearn to Wilder is true, then it makes sense for Wilder to turn that offer down. Why would Wilder accept that kind of money fighting Whyte when he can wait around to make a lot more than that fighting Joshua? It’s unclear how much money Wilder would make fighting Joshua, but I believed it would certainly be well and above the $3M that Hearn is offering for Wilder to fight Whyte.

Hearn should offer that kind of money to Luis Ortiz to fight Whyte. I think the Cuban fighter would take it in a second. Whyte still has unfinished business with Dereck Chisora, who was arguably robbed in his fight with Whte last December. Whyte was hurt several times by Chisora. The judges gave it Whyte by a questionable 12 round split decision. A lot of boxing fans thought Chisora won that fight. Boxing News 24 scored it 9 rounds to 3 in favor of Chisora.

“I’ve made several offers to Al Haymon’s team and we are awaiting a final answer, but I think Deontay made things clear on his Instagram,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “It’s a great offer and a great career move – a chance to earn plenty of money but also be involved in a real fight and IF he is good enough to win then it sets up a massive fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. Let’s hope we can all be sensible and give the fans what they want – real heavyweight match-ups.”

If Hearn can come up with the $7 million that Deontay is asking for a fight with Dillian Whyte, then it’s quite possible the match can be made by the end of the year. Wilder, 31, plans on defending his WBC title before the end of the year. That can be against Whyte or Bermane Stiverne.

There’s nothing that Wilder gets out of fighting Dillian Whyte for him to take less than he wants. If this was someone that could take Wilder’s career to the next level like Wladimir Klitschko, then it’s possible he might take less than what he deserves, but Whyte isn’t that type of fighter. Whyte is just a guy that was knocked out by Joshua, and who recently won a controversial 12 round decision against Chisora.

Here’s what Wilder said on his Instagram Whyte and Hearn:

“Eddie Hearn, let’s not play around here. We both know who I want from England. [Anthony Joshua]. You told me a while back at the WBC convention that your main man was next, remember? So why have you been trying to throw your cockroaches in with me. First it was [Tony] Bellew and now it’s your dirty [expletive] Dillian Whyte. Man, come on. I tell you what. Make that offer of $3 million into $7 million and on OUR terms. Oh it’s going to cost you to change my plans of what we about to do up and NO, it’s not on YOUR terms. How you go come with an offer of $3 million and want things on your terms too? The last time I checked, I was the damn CHAMP!”

So there it is. Wilder isn’t interested in fighting Whyte UNLESS promoter Eddie Hearn increases the offer from $3 million to $7 million. It looks like Hearn and Wilder are worlds apart in the money for a Wilder-Whyte fight. You have to look at things from Wilder’s perspective. He gains nothing from fighting Whyte. There’s no upside in that fight. The casual boxing fans in the U.S don’t know who Dillian Whyte is. Wilder could obliterate Whyte in 1 round, and the U.S boxing fans wouldn’t care. Some of the hardcore fans in American might care, but probably not a lot.

Whyte’s boxing stock really dropped off a mountain when he lost to Joshua and then won a controversial decision over Chisora. If Wilder beats the brakes off of Whyte, it’s not going to do much for his cache. Wilder vs. Whyte would be a nice PPV fight in the UK, but it would do nothing for Wilder in the States. I think it would attract a lot of interest from the boxing public in the UK for sure.

“His immediate priority is to get the biggest fight he can get, but the Bermane Stiverne fight is a reality we have to deal with,” said promoter Lou DiBella to skysports.com. “He is still technically the WBC mandatory and we are the WBC champion.”

I guess Hearn didn’t know about Wilder having a mandatory defense due against Stiverne. That mandatory isn’t just going to disappear in thin air by Wilder wishing it goes away. He’s going to need to fight Stiverne. Yeah, there’s a possibility that Stiverne might step aside for the right amount of money while Wilder fights Whyte. But if all he’s going to get is $ 3 million to fight Whyte instead of the $7 million asking price for the fight, then I don’t see that fight happening. It doesn’t look like Hearn is going to come up with the $7M that Wilder wants for a fight against Whyte. That’s too bad because it would be a decent fight for the boxing public.

”When I beat the horse [expletive] out your stray doggy, (Animal Farm), I’m AGAIN not going to GAIN any credit or anything from anybody for beating his [expletive] whatsoever,” said Wilder about a fight against Whyte. ”After this beat down from TTown, they will call him a Bum, too. Let’s face it and the world knows this. Fans really just want to see me back in the ring that’s why they are entertaining this bull [expletive]Ddillian Whyte is a crush dummy at best. He’s designed to well you know!?! “expletive [Crush]” Every fighter wants to fight for titles over and over again, [expletive] some guys never see a first time and y’all want another shot with 3M + term too? Get the [expletive]out of here. Hey I would love to [expletive] him up as bad and as bloody as I will do and take that money too EZ.”