By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn says the winner of the Deontay Wilder vs. Dillian Whyte fight will face Anthony Joshua in the mid-summer next year. Hearn says he’s in talks to try and make a fight between Wilder (38-0,37 KOs) and Whyte (21-1, 16 KOs) for early next year.
Hearn is going to try his hardest to make the Wilder-Whyte fight. If Wilder refuses to fight Whyte, then he might be forced to take the fight. Whyte’s next fight against Robert Helenius on October 28 is for the WBC Silver heavyweight title. It should push Whyte up the rankings from the No.3 spot where he’s currently ranked to potentially No.1 with the World Boxing Council.
“I think the Wilder fight will be in the mid-summer,” said Hearn to Fighthub in talking about when he wants to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight. “I’d like him to fight Dillian Whyte. I talked to his guys again. Wilder fights Whyte and the winner fights Joshua,” said Hearn.
Hearn needs to get on the same page with Joshua, since right now he’s talking about not wanting to fight Wilder until 2019 or 2020. It’s not a good thing for Hearn to be talking about Wilder and Whyte fighting for the right to fight Joshua if Hearn hasn’t floated this idea by AJ to see if he would agree on it. Joshua, 27, has not seemed too thrilled lately based on his comments to step inside the ring with Wilder just yet. Hearn talking about a summer fight that he hasn’t yet spoken to Joshua about, it could end up with a lot of disappointed boxing fans when the Joshua-Wilder fight fails to materialize.
”Joseph Parker is a fight we could look at in February or March,” said Hearn. ”The main thing is to fight 3 times next year. I’d like 2 of those fights to be for belts. The idea is to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and I think it’s on for next year,” said Hearn.
Well, there’s a good chance that Joshua CAN become the undisputed heavyweight world champion in 2018 if Hearn’s vision thing plays out like he sees it inside his head. But judging by Joshua’s comments about him not wanting to fight Wilder until 2019 or 2020, the only way I see it possible for AJ to become the undisputed champion in 2018 is if Whyte defeats Wilder in early 2018. Anything is possible in heavyweight boxing. Who knows? Whyte might be able to do it? Wilder hasn’t fought a body puncher as of yet, and Whyte seems to have reshaped his game to fit his “Body Snatcher” nickname. Whyte is punching better than he ever has to the body. It’s possible that if Whyte can target Wilder’s body with his left hooks and right hands, he could take him out. In the event that Whyte, 29, beats Wilder, we will almost surely see Joshua become the undisputed heavyweight world champion next year. I don’t think it’ll be a good thing for Hearn, Matchroom Sport or Joshua if Wilder gets picked off by Whyte. In terms of monetary reward, Joshua stands to make a heck of a lot more fighting Wilder than he does against Whyte. But for some reason, Hearn wants Wilder to fight Whyte first. That’s a weird fight to insist on unless Hearn’s focus is on trying to get Wilder out of Joshua’s hair so he can stay unbeaten for a longer period of time.
With Joshua, you can’t predict too far into the future with his career and assume he’s going to be still unbeaten in 2 to 3 years. Joshua looked really shaky against Wladimir Klitschko in his last fight on April 29, especially with his stamina. If Joshua gasses against the wrong opponent, he could taste defeat. Even Carlos Takam has the power to get Joshua out of there on October 28 if his stamina fails him.
“He can go in February or March,” said Hearn about Joshua. “The place to do the Wilder fight is here. Neither guy is a huge star in America yet,” said Hearn in taking about Wilder and Joshua. “That fight is huge in Britain. So everything tells me Britain is the place for that fight. That’s one of the problems. You cannot possibility think a fighter with commercial value, particularly Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder should warrant anywhere near 50 percent in that fight. It’s a fact. They will in their head say, ‘I’m a champion, my belts on the line, that’s the split.’ If it is, that fight will never happen. They’re still going to get good paydays for fighting Anthony Joshua in whatever they’re offered. They’ve got to be treated with respect. It’s not just, ‘here’s a couple of million. Take the fight.’ But they’ve got to understand the size of Anthony Joshua. We also understand we want the belts. The public wants to see those fights. So we’ve got to try and make them. Sometimes it’s a split AJ doesn’t like to get those fights, but we’ll see. But he’s in a great position,” said Hearn.
So there it is. Wilder and Parker will never get fights against Joshua if they ask for too big of a purse split of the loot for a fight against him, according to Hearn. Just how big of a purse split Wilder and Parker can get without losing out on the Joshua fight is the big question. Given how much Wilder brings to the table for a Joshua fight, you would have to think he would be entitled to get at least a 60-40 split of the revenue. But if Hearn is talking 90-10 or 80-20 for Joshua against Wilder, I don’t think that’s going to fly for the “Bronze Bomber” and his team. I would guess the same would apply for Joseph Parker.
With all the boxing fans that will be paying to see Joshua-Parker because he’s facing Parker, you would think he should be getting a fair split of the revenue instead of being left with the small end of the revenue. Hearn could end up not getting either heavyweight for Joshua to fight in 2018 if he offers hem too little. Hearn won’t be able to force Wilder and Parker to accept a small purse split for a fight with Joshua.
Yeah, Hearn can send Dillian Whyte their way to try and have him take one or both of their titles, but if he fails, then what is he going to do? Who else does Hearn have left to try and take Wilder and Parker’s titles? Hearn would have to find someone else to sign to send their way to try and take their titles. Of course, it would be better if Hearn gave Wilder and Parker a fair split of the revenue for a Joshua fight. Further, it would be better for Hearn to forget about the idea of making Wilder fight Whyte in order to earn the fight with Joshua.
