Deontay Wilder says Anthony Joshua fight will happen soon

By Boxing News - 04/29/2018 - Comments

Image: Deontay Wilder says Anthony Joshua fight will happen soon

By Scott Gilfoid: Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) still expects his fight against Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) to take place despite the fact that AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn chose not to accept the rich $50 million offer of for him to take the fight with the WBC heavyweight champion.

Team Wilder set a deadline of Thursday night that came and went without Hearn accepting it. Wilder, 32, is not giving up on the Joshua fight; although he may have to if AJ chooses to ask for a King’s ransom for him to agree to the contest.

Apparently, $50 million guaranteed loot that Team Wilder officered was not enough for him to accept it. If Joshua wants 50 million in pounds instead of dollars, then I’m afraid that fight is never going to be made. $70 million is just too much money for Joshua, especially with the way he’s looked so shaky lately in fights against Joseph Parker, Carlos Takam and Wladimir Klitschko. Joshua looked beatable in each of those contests.

“It will definitely happen,” Wilder said to skysports.com about the Joshua fight. “If Joshua and his team are smart enough, they’ll take this fight and take it soon.”

Wilder has a much more positive upbeat attitude about the Joshua fight that Hearn, who comes across as really negative about the fight. It makes you wonder if he even wants it to happen. You can understand why Hearn wouldn’t want Joshua to fight Wilder. If Joshua loses the fight, it could be the end of the gravy train. That’s how it goes sometimes in boxing. When a popular fighter loses in a spectacular way by getting knocked cold, it has a disastrous effect on their career in some cases. Could that happen to Joshua if Wilder knocks him out?

Hearn thinks it is weird the way Wilder’s team has attempted to negotiate the fight with Joshua, but it could be a culture issue. American old school promoters do things differently than the younger promoters from elsewhere around the world. What Wilder’s management wanted was for Joshua and Hearn to say they agree to the $50 million offer so that they could have an agreement on the money right off the bat before they sat down to discuss things like the date and venue. Without Hearn and Joshua agreeing to the money, there was no point in Wilder’s management to sit down with him to iron out the finer details in putting together the fight.

“It’s all very bizarre. I returned the email of Deontay Wilder and said we are very interested in making this fight, please send us a draft contract,”“He replied and said ‘you have to accept the fight and then we will send you the contract’. I’ve never known anything so bizarre since I’ve worked in boxing.”

I don’t see anything bizarre about what Wilder is asking Hearn. You either accept the $50 million offer or you don’t. If Hearn and Joshua can’t say whether they’re willing to accept the money, then why should Wilder’s managers Al Haymon and Shelly Finkel meet with him? I mean, there’s no point at all in meeting with Hearn, because if he’s just going to try get a better deal than the offer that is on the table, then the meeting is useless. Wilder’s team offered Hearn and Joshua a take-it-or-leave-it offer, and with those types of offers, you need to say straightaway whether you’re in agreement with it or not. Obviously, Hearn chose not to accept it, so as of now the Joshua vs. Wilder fight is not happening.