Hearn: Joshua wants Wilder fight in September at Wembley

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid

Anthony Joshua’s eager promoter Eddie Hearn says his fighter wants to face WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) at Wembley Stadium in London, England this September.

Wilder has already said he’s agreeable to coming to the UK to face Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) for their first of 2 fights between them if he’s not comfortable fighting in the U.S. However, Hearn will likely need to increase the initial flat fee of $12.5 million that he’s offered to Deontay for the fight to become a reality.

Before Joshua faces Wilder in September, Hearn will have him defend his WBA heavyweight title against his mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin in the summer. There’s some risk involved for Joshua in that fight unless he has a referee working the fight like the one that officiated AJ’s fight with WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker on March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. With a referee that pulls Povetkin away from Joshua each time he’s working him over on the inside with heavy blows, the Russian fighter will have no chance.

Hearn believes the Joshua-Wilder fight won’t bring in the kind of money that Deontay’s management thinks it will, which could be as much as $100 million. Hearn thinks it will only take in $40 million. Perhaps Hearn could be right about it. What’s unclear though is why he’s offering Wilder a flat fee rather than a straight percentage deal? That’s the peculiar thing. If Wilder agrees to the $12.5 million flat fee offer from Hearn, then what happens if the fight DOES bring in $100 million? Does Joshua pocket all the rest of the loot and Wilder just the $12.5 million flat fee? That’s the whole problem with Hearn’s flat fee offer.

Hearn seems to be basing it on a low projection of revenue coming in for the Joshua vs. Wilder fight. That sum is fine if the Joshua-Wilder fight only takes in $25 million. In that case, $12.5M is a fine amount for Deontay to get for the fight. But if the fight makes $100 million, Wilder is going to look bad if Joshua walks away with a cool $87.5M. I’m just saying. I don’t think Wilder’s management are going to ever agree to a $12.5 million flat fee based on Hearn’s low projections for the fight. If Hearn offered Wilder a flat fee of $40 million, then I think there’s a good chance that he and his managers Al Haymon and Shelly Finkel would agree to that number, because it would be based on the highest possible projection for the fight.

”Deontay Wilder has been offered five times his biggest purse to face Anthony Joshua,” Hearn said to the dailymail.co.uk. ”Whether that fight happens next or the fight after depends solely on the American.”

Hearn has been talking a lot about how Wilder will be receiving a purse that is “five times his biggest purse” for the Joshua fight. That may be true, but offering him a flat fee rather than a percentage deal for the Joshua fight is a non-starter. Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker received a percentage deal for his fight with Joshua last March. Why is Hearn only offering Wilder a flat fee? That’s what makes some boxing fans believe that Hearn isn’t serious about making the Joshua-Wilder fight at this time. But who knows? Maybe Hearn truly feels Wilder only rates a flat fee rather than a percentage deal. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll ever accept that deal, so it’s almost not even worth it for Hearn to continue to talk about the Joshua-Wilder fight at this point. If Hearn is serious about wanting to make the fight for Joshua, then he’s going to have to offer Wilder a more realistic number than what he’s currently offering him. My guess is Wilder’s management will insist on a 60-40 split or a flat fee of $40 million if Hearn chooses to stubbornly stick with not offering a percentage deal.

It’s interesting how Hearn is putting everything on Wilder’s shoulders about whether the Joshua-Wilder fight takes place or not. I don’t know that anyone believes that it’s up to Wilder whether the fight with Joshua takes place, but if Hearn keeps repeating it enough with the media, he could get some boxing fans that believe it. The current 87.5/12.5 purse split given to Wilder isn’t going to work. Finkel will be making a counter offer to Hearn, which is believed to be a 60-40 split instead of the lopsided 87.5/12.5 split.

You can argue that it’s really up to Hearn and Joshua whether the fight with Wilder takes place. If they want the fight with him for his WBC belt, then they’re probably going to need to do one of two things: Either they offer Wilder a $40 million flat fee or give up a 60-40 split in the contract. To me, having the contract for the Joshua vs. Wilder fight state that Wilder gets 40 percent of the revenue for the fight, no matter how much the event takes in, is the fairest. That way there’s risk involved for Hearn. If Hearn gives Wilder a $40 million flat fee, he could wind up losing money if the fight only brings in $30 million. So, the best thing Hearn can do is simply give Wilder a 40 percent cut of the revenue, and I think he’ll sign quickly if he’s offered a percentage deal like that.

It’s in Hearn’s best interest to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight happen in 2018, because if one of those two lose, then a lot of money will be flushed down the drain. Joshua won’t make the same kind of money facing any of the current contenders in the division right now until Tyson Fury is able to fight him, and who knows how long before that fight takes place. Fury might look awful and lose in one of his four comeback fights this year. He’s talking about wanting to fight four times in 2018, but he might look poor. Joshua-Fury won’t bring in huge numbers in PPV buys if Fury is looking sloppy and over-the-hill in his next four fights. Wilder, 32, is probably the best bet for Joshua to make a huge amount of money fighting right now until some of the younger guys like Daniel Dubois start making waves at the upper levels of the division.

Hearn is proud of how Joshua boxed his way to a 12 round unanimous victory over Parker in their fight on March 31 in Cardiff. Hearn believes that Joshua showed good stamina and excellent boxing skills in winning a one-sided decision. However, what Hearn isn’t saying is that the referee kept Parker from fighting on the inside during the fight by intervening when he was trying to work in close. We’ll never know how Joshua would have done if he’d been forced to fight an inside war against Parker. A rematch would probably be the best way to decide who the better fighter is of the two, because Joshua’s victory over Parker was tainted in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans due to the referee not letting the New Zealand fighter battle on the inside.

As I pointed out previously, if the referee had prevented Joshua from fighting on the outside all night long, his game would have been badly neutralized in the fight, because he’s not a good inside fighter. Parker lost the fight to Joshua because he wasn’t able to fight on the inside due to the referee choosing to keep the two fighters apart. It was one of the weirdest fights I’ve ever seen before. The referee was trying his best obviously, but he looked like someone that had been pulled off the street and thrown into the ring to officiate the fight without any training. The guy looked like this was his first fight that he’d ever worked. It was obviously a good thing for Joshua and Hearn that Parker wasn’t able to fight on the inside, because the outcome of the match likely would have been much different.

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