Finkel: Hearn doesn’t want Wilder vs. Joshua fight

By Boxing News - 11/06/2017 - Comments

Image: Finkel: Hearn doesn’t want Wilder vs. Joshua fight

By Jeff Aranow: Deontay Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkel says he had no luck when he reached out to Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn recently to try and put together a fight between the two heavyweight champions. Finkel says when he asked Hearn when can Deontay Wilder get the Joshua fight, he never phoned him back.

When Finkel did speak to Hearn, the British promoter wanted to know how much Wilder wanted for him to fight Dillian Whyte. Finkel told him that would be an easy fight, but he wanted to know when the Joshua would happen. That’s where things fell apart. Hearn never responded. Whyte is the guy that Hearn wants Wilder to fight, but not Joshua it seems. Finkel and Wilder obviously aren’t going to take the fight with Whyte if Hearn won’t give him the Joshua fight.

“6 weeks ago I got an e-mail from Eddie Hearn and he said, ‘If you fight Dillian Whyte, we’ll get you Joshua next,” said Finkel. “I couldn’t get on the phone quick enough with him. He didn’t answer, and I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ He said, ‘Give me a day. I just lost the [Kubrat] Pulev fight. So, the next day I said, ‘What’s the deal, and he said, ‘What do you want to fight Dillian Whyte?’ ‘That’ll be easy. When do we get Joshua,’” said Finkel. “He never called me back. I’ve been around the game for a long time. When someone wants to fight, they fight. Joshua said he wants to fight Deontay next year. Deontay just finished his mandatory. You know what he wants to do. Joshua just finished his mandatory. You haven’t heard a word from him. If Joshua wants to fight, Deontay is ready. If it means the right deal is to go to the UK, we’ll fight the man on the moon. He’ll go anywhere to fight him. It’s up to Joshua. And if it’s not, he has his reasons not to,” said Finkel.

It looks like Hearn and Joshua aren’t ready to make the Wilder fight currently. They have a good thing going obviously. Joshua is making huge money fighting guys like Carlos Takam and Eric Molina. If Joshua fights Wilder and gets knocked out by him, which could interrupt the British heavyweight’s money stream. It wouldn’t destroy Joshua’s marketability entirely in the UK in terms of the PPV money he makes, but it might put a big dent in it. Hearn doesn’t have another money maker like Joshua to sell on Sky Box Office PPV. If Joshua gets knocked to oblivion by Wilder, it could result in Hearn’s money stream drying up on him.

Wilder’s promoter Lou Dibella says Joshua or Hearn don’t want the Wilder, and he’s not happy about it.
“Why can’t it happen next,” said Dibella . “They fought one week apart. They’re on the same schedule. Anthony Joshua does not want to fight this man right now. Eddie Hearn does not want this man [Wilder] to fight Anthony Joshua right now,” said Dibella.

“I don’t think he wants to fight me as bad as I want to fight him though,” said Wilder.

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