By Jim Dower: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs0 is reportedly willing to accept a smaller 40 percent split of the revenue for a unification fight against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion, if he can get 60 percent of the split in a rematch, according to Michael Benson. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn appears to like the deal.
Accepting a 40 percent cut for the Joshua fight is potentially a bad deal for the 32-year-old Wilder, as there’s a good chance he’ll lose that fight. The concern would be that if Wilder gets beaten by Joshua in fight No.1, he won’t ever see the 60 percent for the rematch in fight No.2 in 2019. If anything, Wilder might not even get a 40 percent cut of the revenue in a second fight against Joshua.
Why should Joshua give Wilder 40 percent in a rematch if he’s knocked out in the first fight? It would be far better for Wilder and his promoters to push for at least a 45 percent cut of the revenue for fight No.1 against Joshua. That way if Wilder loses the fight, which would seem likely, then he’ll at least have gotten a little bit more money. If Wilder gets a 45 percent cut for the first fight, he can bargain for a 40 percent cut in the rematch if he’s coming off a defeat.
You would have to assume that if Wilder gets a 40 percent cut for the first fight, he surely won’t receive that amount in the rematch if he’s coming from a knockout loss to AJ. Under that scenario, Hearn could easily justify a 30 percent offer for Wilder in the rematch. As such, it’s always better to push for as big a purse as possible in fight No.1 of a 2-fight deal unless you’re dead certain you’re going to win it. The way Wilder looked in struggling to beat 38-year-old Luis Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) by a 10th round knockout on March 3, he’ll be lucky if he makes it to the 6th round against Joshua.
Wilder is too thin, and his chin is too weak for him to be given much of any chance of beating Joshua. At 214 pounds, Wilder should be fighting at cruiserweight rather than heavyweight. He’s too light for him to have any chance against the 250 lb. Joshua. We’re likely to see Joshua trimmed down in his unification fight against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker on March 31, but he’s still expected to be in the 244 to 248 lb. range. Wilder’s weight will likely drop even further when he trains for the Joshua fight. We could see Wilder walking into the ring with Joshua at 205 lbs. and look rail thin. At that weight, Wilder would be outweighed by many of the top cruiserweights, who tend to rehydrate to 215 to 220 lbs. for their fights in that weight division.
In other news, Hearn wants a 2-fight deal for the Joshua-Wilder fight with the two fighters facing each other late this year in 2018 for fight No.1 of the 2-fight deal in the U.S, and then facing each other in a rematch in the summer of 2019 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It probably won’t matter that Joshua will be traveling to the U.S to face Wilder in that country for the first fight, because the home advantage probably won’t help him. Wilder would have lost to visiting fighter Luis Ortiz earlier this month in New York if the Cuban fighter hadn’t gassed out and left him off the hook in the 7th round after he had him badly hurt.
Wilder is so timid, so thin and so weak in the chin, it won’t matter if the entire audience is rooting for him against Joshua. Wilder is still going to be out of his element. Joshua is just too big for Wilder, and he’s the much more rugged heavyweight. Wilder is someone that absolutely must score a knockout immediately against Joshua for him to have a chance of beating him, because if the fight goes more than four or five rounds, he’s going to get taken out. The way Wilder fought against Ortiz, he might not make it past the 2nd round against Joshua. Wilder is not big enough, and he can’t take a punch at all. Ortiz hit Wilder with just one hard punch in their fight, and he had him on the brink of being knocked out.
Joshua will hit Wilder with many punches with even more power than the one he was hurt with against Ortiz, and he’s going to fold up right away unless he goes after the British fighter immediately. Wilder has a chance against Joshua, but only if he attacks him with right hands at the very start of round 1 in the way he did against Bermane Stiverne last November. If Wilder is fearless, confident and willing to go all out from the 1st round, he’ll have a chance of knocking Joshua out immediately. As scared as Wilder looked against Ortiz, it’s not likely he’ll be able to fight in the way that he needs to for him to have a chance of beating Joshua. Wilder will be too afraid to let his hands go, and that’ll in his worst nightmares coming true. Joshua will obliterate Wilder immediately if he doesn’t fight with courage from the opening bell.
Hearn is said to be 80 percent certain the Joshua vs. Wilder fight will be taking place next. Hearn knows that the fight needs to take place. Wilder is looking too shaky for Hearn not to make the Joshua-Wilder fight next. That’s what this is all about. Hearn isn’t reacting to pressure in his desire to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight next. Hearn is reacting to how thin and fragile Wilder is looking now.
Hearn knows that Wilder could crumble in his next title defense against someone like Dominic Breazeale or Dillian Whyte. Once Wilder loses his WBC heavyweight title, all that money Joshua and Hearn could have made against him will be out the door. Joshua won’t make a ton of money fighting the guy that beats Wilder, especially if it’s someone that he’s already beaten in the past like Whyte or Breazeale. That’s why Hearn is in such a rush to make the Joshua-Wilder fight next. He knows that he needs to make the fight pronto or else Wilder will get beaten by someone else.