By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn feels fairly confident that he’ll be able to put together a fight between his fighter IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) and Wladimir Klitschko for November 26.
Hearn says that he’s looking to get a certain amount for Joshua that he feels he’s worth for the fight against the 40-year-old two-time world champion Wladimir. If Hearn fails to get his asking price, then he intends on moving on and having Joshua fight someone like Joseph Parker or someone else for the November 26. A fight between Joshua and Parker makes a lot of sense right now as a backup plan, but Hearn might not want that fight after how impressive Parker looked in demolishing the 6’7” Alexander Dimitrenko last Saturday night in New Zealand.
This was Parker’s tallest opponent of his career, and he proved to be an even better punching facing a super tall guy than he’s been in the past against shorter fighters. Parker sparred with a lot of taller fighters in preparing for the Dimitrenko fight, and he appears to have learned how to fight them. The power that Parker showed in punching up at the face and chin of Dimitrenko was nothing short of devastating.
If Joshua gets hit with the same shots that Dimitrenko did, it’s hard to imagine him being able to take that kind of power for more than two or three rounds. Joshua can dish it out well enough, but can he take punishment of that kind in return? I have my doubts. All we know is that Joshua hasn’t fought a puncher in four years since the 2012 Olympics, and he appeared to lose to Erislandy Savon and Roberto Cammarelle in the Olympics in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. The controversy of Joshua winning a Gold medal in that Olympus, which took place in London, was bad news. Since turning pro in 2013, Joshua has fought one puncher in Dillian Whyte, but he had an injured left shoulder on his power hand, and he wasn’t able to throw with major power after he suffered the injury in the 2nd round. Whyte still staggered Joshua with a left hook before injuring his shoulder.
Hearn said this to Fighthype.com:
“People are asking me nonstop. We’re still talking to Wladimir Klitschko. There’s a number we feel AJ’s worth in that fight. If we can get it, the fight can happen. If we can’t, we’ll make a defense on November 26, maybe against [Joseph] Parker, maybe against someone else. We have to move. I was hoping to get something done this week. It’s Klitschko. It’s possible we could get something done in the next couple of weeks. Joshua has been training three or four weeks, and Klitschko has been training for six months. They’re ready to fight. It’s just on the promotional level. It’s the young genius against the legend in the division. It’s a massive crossroads fight. There’s a chance. It’s better than 50-50. Not a long way to go. It’s more Wladimir. It’s probably one or two fights before we anticipated it for Anthony Joshua. At the same time it’s a great opportunity. We want it for all the belts. It has to be a unification and not a voluntary defense. That puts Klitschko in an awkward position. He’s just a voluntary challenger for a belt. We’re trying to make it happen for boxing.”
It’s unclear how much Hearn is asking for Joshua for the Klitschko fight. But if it’s too much of a cut, then it’s understandable why Wladimir wouldn’t be agreeable to taking the fight. Wladimir might be better off going in another direction towards fighting for the WBO strap against someone he can get a better cut of the loot against.
If Wladimir can fight Joseph Parker for the World Boxing Organization title, then that might be the better deal for him in terms of a money split. Hopefully, Hearn doesn’t price Joshua out of the Klitschko fight. He needs to realize that he’s not trying to match Joshua against the likes of Dominic Breazeale or Charles Martin. Wladimir is a huge star in the heavyweight division. He’s well known worldwide by boxing fans. He would be the one that would be pulling in a lot of the British boxing fans to purchase a fight against Joshua. You would expect a talent like Wladimir to get the bigger end of the loot for the fight against Joshua. Hearn can’t get carried away in asking for too much in the negotiations without losing the fight altogether.
Hearn might not realize this, but Wladimir is ranked #2 by the WBO, right behind #1 Joseph Parker. What this means is that Wladimir could very well be the one that faces Parker for the vacant WBO heavyweight title if the WBO strips current champion Tyson Fury of his title for his alleged positive cocaine test.
If Wladimir lets the WBO know that he’s interested in fighting for their title, then he could face Parker for the vacant strap rather than #3 WBO Andy Ruiz Jr. fighting for it. I think that’s a better deal for Wladimir to face Parker if he can get a bigger cut of the loot than he can for the Joshua fight.
In the meantime, Hearn can think hard about dropping his asking price for Joshua when/if Wladimir shows interest in facing him in the future. If Wladimir can win the WBO strap, he would be able to fight Joshua on an even playing field, because it would be a unification fight rather than Wladimir being the challenger fighting Joshua for his IBF title. It’s never good to be a challenger in terms of the money that you’re getting compared to the champion. Wladimir would be undercutting himself if he fought Joshua for small money now compared to the type of deal he can get latter on down the line if he can pick up the WBO title first.
I don’t think Wladimir can beat a talent like Parker, to be honest. But if the money split is better for Wladimir to fight Parker than it is for a fight against Joshua, then Wladimir has to go that route. He can always fight Joshua later in a unification when/if he wins the vacant WBO title in the Parker match.
