By Scott Gilfoid: David Higgins says he won’t be accepting the offer from IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to fly over to the UK to meet with him in person to hammer out a deal for a Joshua vs. Joseph Parker fight in early 2018.
Higgins says he’ll wait until Hearn starts showing signs that he’s willing to budge in the negotiations before he decides to meet with him. Right now, Hearn has dug his feet into the mud and is struck on the 70-30 split for the Joshua-Parker fight.
Hearn says he’s doing a lot just to give Parker 30 percent, because he feels he doesn’t bring much more than what Joshua’s last opponent mandatory challenger Carlos Takam brought to the table. Higgins doesn’t see it that way, and he’s not going to agree to the same 30 percent that Takam or any mandatory challenger is entitled to. Higgins and Parker have already come down quite a ways to the 65-35 cut that they’re asking for. It looks like Hearn wants them to come down even further rather than him coming up to meet him at 65-35.
“I potentially will go to Britain, but not until I see a concession on their side,” Higgins said to skysports.com. “Our view is we’re close, we’ve made all the concessions so far, and I need to see some movement from their side,” said Higgins.
Yeah, it might be a bad scene if Higgins meets with Hearn behind closed doors. Hearn going through every facet of emotions to try and get Higgins to accept the 30 percent offer. If Hearn starts working hard to get Higgins to come down to the 30 percent that he wants him to agree to, it would be a waste of time.
Higgins would have to walk out and get back on the plane and go back home. There’s no point in Higgins coming over to England if Hearn is going to be droning on endlessly about Parker needing to agree to 30 percent. Who needs that kind of aggravation? I wouldn’t go either if I were Higgins.
It doesn’t look like Hearn is willing to move on the 70-30 deal he’s offering. In that case, Higgins should start planning on putting together the Parker vs. Lucas Browne fight. It’s a waste of time for Higgins to deal with Hearn if he’s going to continue to offer Parker mandatory challenger money.
Hearn said on Wednesday that his leading option for Joshua to fight is Dillian Whyte if he can’t put together the unification fight against Parker.
Joshua-Whyte would be a good fight. Hearn should pull the trigger on that match ASAP so that he can start marketing the fight to the boxing public. I’m not sure if the British boxing public will be all that excited about seeing Joshua fight Whyte again after just 2 years. Whyte has done nothing to rebuild his career since losing to Joshua. Whyte’s best wins since then were terrible performances against Dereck Chisora and Robert Helenius.
“If he signals a bit of room to move, then I probably will jump on a plane and brave another English winter,” said Higgins.
Higgins might be waiting a LONG time for Hearn to signal any concessions in the negotiations. I don’t think he will.