Hearn offers Wilder and Fury 60-40 splits for Joshua fight

By Scott Gilfoid

Boxingnews24.com

Anthony Joshua’s wily promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that he’s offered both Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury a 60-40 deal for them to face his franchise fighter Anthony Joshua on April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London, England, according to Talksport. The offer for WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs) an a considerable increase from the $15 million flat fee that Hearn offered to him to fight Joshua last September. However, the offer is still a galaxy away from the 50-50 deal that the 6’7″ Deontay is asking for in order to take a fight with Joshua.

Hearn’s 60-40 offer to Wilder represents a slight increase of his recent 65-35 purse split offer, which had a guarantee of $15 million. That would be for the first fight. It would have been a great deal for Joshua either way, as he gets a huge split that is very close to the 67-33 that he enjoyed for his fight against former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Joseph Parker last March. Hearn’s 65-35 split that he offered to Wilder was basically him saying that he sees him as just barely deserving a little more money than what Parker got. That’s surprising. Joshua vs. Wilder is clearly a much bigger fight worldwide than Joshua vs. Parker. Hearn’s offer to Wilder of just 2 percentage points better than the 67-33 deal given to Parker shows how much Eddie estimates the value that ‘The Bronze Bomber’ brings to the table.

The same goes for Fury. 60-40 is nowhere near the 50-50 split of the loot that Fury wants. Hearn says that the winner of the Wilder vs. Fury rematch can possibly get a 50-50 deal, depending on how well that fight does in terms of PPV numbers.

The 60-40 offers Hearn has made to Wilder and Fury to accept a fight against Joshua on April 13 at Wembley Stadium are so far off from what those two talented heavyweights are asking for, it just seems painfully obvious that there’s no real interest on Eddie’s part in making those fights. That’s nowhere close to what Wilder and Fury asking for.R

Wilder’s 60-40 split for the April 13 fight against Joshua fight would lead to an even lower 70-30 split for the rematch in the United States. The lower split would be part of the deal for Wilder. If he loses the first fight against Joshua on April 13, then he would only get 30 percent of the revenue for the first fight. It’s a great deal for Joshua, because he gets the lion’s share of the loot against Wilder while fighting at home in the UK for the first fight, and then he can get 70 percent against Deontay in the rematch in the United States.

Yes, Wilder can get a 50-50 deal for the Joshua fight for the rematch if he beats him on April 13, but there’s no telling what kind of oddity we might see in that fight. If there’s a referee wants to stop the fight prematurely, Wilder could end up losing by a knockout. Would Wilder be given the benefit of the doubt like Fury when he was dropped in round 12 by Deontay in their fight on December 1 in Los Angeles? Would the referee give a count or would he stop the fight the moment Wilder his the canvas?

If Hearn were seriously interested in making the Joshua-Wilder or Joshua-Fury fights, he would come up with an in between number like 55-45 to show that he’s interested in negotiating the fight. What this means, of course, is that the boxing public is going to need to ready themselves for a fight between Joshua and Matchroom sport heavyweight Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs) on April 13. Joshua-Miller might not be the fight that the fans want to see, but it’s the one that Hearn is capable of putting together, since ‘Big Baby’ isn’t going to ask for an even 50-50 split of the loot for him to fight Joshua.R

“60/40 – Are you really telling me that’s not a fair split in that fight?”Hearn said to Talksport.com. “On any planet you live on, whether it’s Earth or Mars, Deontay Wilder cannot get 50/50 for an Anthony Joshua fight.”

As you can see, Hearn is clearly the stumbling block for why the Joshua vs. Wilder fight hasn’t happened, and why it will continue not to happen. When you have a promoter that sounds stubborn like Hearn is, and is seemingly digging his feet into the sand by talking in absolutes, there’s no room for negotiation. Hearn is basically saying to Wilder, ‘It’s my way or the highway,’ in terms of a fight between him and Joshua. That’s incredibly off-putting to say the least, but it’s par for the course, isn’t it? That’s how things are when a promoter believes his fighter deserves to be the A-side in each fight. It leads to that fight winding up being isolated from the other talented contenders and champions in that division, which some boxing fans believe is what Hearn actually wants. The best way to keep Joshua at the top is to make sure he doesn’t fight certain guys like Wilder, Fury, Dillian Whyte and Luis Ortiz.

It’s too bad that Hearn doesn’t want to put the Joshua vs. Wilder fight together, because it would be a good one of the boxing fans. If Joshua wins, his popularity will go through the roof worldwide. Hearn has always said that he feels that Joshua would beat Wilder with ease, but his actions say otherwise. Hearn being unwilling to give Wilder anywhere close to what he’s asking for to fight Joshua suggests that Eddie lacks confidence in AJ to get the job done against the talented ‘Bronze Bomber.’ What a pity.

The recent offer Hearn gave to the unbeaten Wilder for a Joshua fight on April 13 was a 65-35 split with a $15 million guarantee. This was a 2-fight deal. So even if Wilder were to lose to Joshua on April 13, he would still get a rematch with him in the United States, albeit with a lower percentage of 70-30. If Wilder wins the April 13 fight against Joshua, he would get a 50-50 deal for the rematch in the U.S. Wilder would have to earn the 50% split by beating Joshua in his home country of the UK, and likely in his hometown. That may not sound like a big deal to some boxing fans, but if you saw Joshua’s recent fights against Joseph Parker and Carlos Takam, you would might think differently.

In Joshua’s match against Carlos Takam in October 2017 in Cardiff, the referee Phil Edwards suddenly jumped in and stopped the fight in the 10th round while both fighters were exchanging. Edwards gave Joshua credit for a knockout despite the fact that Takam looked fine, but clearly upset at the very odd stoppage. If Wilder agrees to the deal that Hearn offers him to fight the first fight in the UK against Joshua for 60-40, what happens if the referee does something strange like stopping the fight prematurely or coming up with some other odd move like we saw in the Joshua vs. Parker fight. That referee was unclear on the concept of inside fighting being allowed in boxing.

To make both UK and U.S fans happy, the Joshua vs. Wilder fight needs to be staged in a different country. Ideally, the Joshua vs. Wilder fight should take place in a neutral country so there’s no way of boxing fans crying robbery afterwards.