By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn already has February 3rd set aside for Dillian Whyte to challenge WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder fight at the O2 Arena in London, England. That’s when Hearn expects the Wilder-Whyte fight to take place. Hearn is hoping that the fight will be agreed on by the Bronze Bomber and his management. Hearn says if Wilder doesn’t agree to fight Whyte, then he’ll force him to take the fight by the mandatory route. Hearn wants Wilder to earn his unification fight with Joshua by beating Whyte. In other words, Hearn is treating Wilder like he’s a challenger to Joshua instead of the WBC heavyweight champion looking to fight a unification.
Whyte is currently ranked #3 by the World Boxing Council, and he’s facing Robert Helenius (25-1, 16 KOs) this month on October 28 in Cardiff, Wales. Hearn seems sure that Whyte will win that fight and get positioned as Wilder’s mandatory challenger.
“I want Dillian Whyte to fight Deontay Wilder on February 3rd at the O2 Arena,” said Hearn to IFL TV. ”He has to win on Saturday night. It’s for the WBC Silver title, and it’s for a shot at the No.1 in the division. So if we can’t get the Wilder fight, he’s got to force the mandatory on Wilder. Everybody wants to do a deal that ties into the Joshua fight. ‘We’ll fight Dillian if you guarantee us [Joshua].’ You’ll get the fight. The winner of the [Wilder vs. Whyte] fight can fight AJ, no problem. But I want to see Dillian fight Wilder.
Hearn’s comment above is him saying that Wilder has no other choice but to fight Whyte, whether he likes it or not. If Wilder says no to the Whyte fight, then Hearn will force him to take the fight by going the mandatory route to make him fight him. Hearn says the reason why he wants Wilder to fight Whyte is because he lacks the popularity at home in the U.S and in the UK to make a fight between him and Joshua a huge match. So, if Wilder beats Whyte, it makes the Joshua-Wilder fight a lot bigger than it would be if Joshua were to fight Wilder straightaway in a unification fight in early 2018 without him facing Whyte. It’s not just Wilder that can increase his popularity. Whyte can as well. If he beats Wilder, it makes him a bigger name in the UK, and that will bring in more PPV buys on Sky Box Office. Obviously, Joshua vs. Whyte will never sell in the U.S. Even if many of the U. S boxing fans were to see Wilder lose to Whyte, they’re not going to want to pay to see Joshua fight Whyte. The cable companies will be making a mistake in the U.S if they try and sell a PPV fight between Joshua and Whyte.
”It’s not a case of, ‘why don’t you give Wilder Joshua.’ We will give him [Joshua],” said Hearn about him willing to let Wilder fight Joshua IF he beats Whyte. ”In the summer he can fight. He’s already been offered a career high payday,” said Hearn about the $3 million he offered Wilder to fight Whyte. “But maybe he doesn’t want to come to the UK. He certainly doesn’t want to fight Dillian Whyte. Whatever he says, people don’t want to fight Dillian Whyte. It’s a hard fight. 2 people I know want to fight Dillian Whyte are Dereck Chisora and Anthony Joshua, and probably Jarrell Miller as well. But the others don’t want to fight him. I spoke to those guys the other day, Deontay Wilder. We want to get this fight, and if he believes he’s the baddest man on the planet or the most feared man on the planet or the best heavyweight on the planet, then you’ll beat Dillian Whyte easy. Don’t worry about it. Oh by the way, if you do beat Dillian Whyte, the AJ fight becomes huge,” said Hearn.
Hearn isn’t seeing it from Wilder’s perspective. Hearn is forgetting that Wilder isn’t a challenger. He’s treating Wilder like he’s a challenger instead of a heavyweight world champion just like Joshua. If the shoe was on the other foot and Wilder’s promoter Lou Dibella invited Joshua to come to the U.S to fight the No.2 heavyweight in his Dibella Entertainment promotional stable and not with Wilder, Joshua wouldn’t be pleased. Joshua wouldn’t want to jump through a hoop by having to fight another U.S heavyweight like Jarrell Miller just to get the fight with Wilder. Joshua wouldn’t be treated fairly if Dibella made him earn the fight with Wilder.
Hearn is arguably treating Wilder like he’s a challenger by telling him to go earn the fight with Joshua by first fighting Dillian Whyte in the UK. Wilder wouldn’t have the chance to fight Whyte in the U.S. It would be in the UK, giving the challenger the home country advantage. Whyte recently won a controversial decision over Dereck Chisora on December 10 last year. Wilder would be putting himself in a one down position if he were to agree to fight Whyte to earn the Joshua fight. Having to come to the UK to defend against the home fighter Whyte makes it even worse for Wilder. It’s like Hearn kicking sand in Wilder’s face with that move.
”He has no profile,” said Hearn about Wilder not being popular in the U.S or the UK. ”Go back to the problem in America of people promoting you and I put Danny Jacobs in the same basket. You look at Deontay Wilder. He’s a good fighter, looks great, a sharp dresser. He’s got the gift for gab, and he’s the world heavyweight champion from American. He’s not a major name in sports in America. I’m sorry but that’s the truth. The focus for the fight should be in the UK. It shuts down streets in the UK,” said Hearn.
Joshua isn’t popular in the U.S. He’s in the same boat as Wilder. The two heavyweights are in the same boat. Hearn is aware that Wilder isn’t a PPV attraction in the U.S the way that Joshua is in the UK, but it’s difficult to become a PPV star in the U.S. Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis did it to a certain extent, but it’s not easy nowadays. The only PPV stars in the U.S in boxing are Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul Canelo Alvarez. Mayweather is retired now, so it leaves just Canelo.
“My initial thought was, ‘we’re going to the UK, why not fight the No.1 guy? Why would we be relegated to fight their 2nd guy?’ That would be the same thing as saying, ‘Joshua, come over to the U.S, but oh, we want you to fight this other guy,’” said Wilder’s manager/trainer Jay Deas to Thaboxingvoice.com. “No, we’re the champion, he’s the champion, let’s put it together and see how it comes out. That was my initial thought. If a Joshua fight can’t be made next, but a Dillian Whyte fight can be made next and there’s no trickery in the contract with options and all these kinds of things, if it’s a straight up deal for the fight, then let’s do it. If the Joshua fight can’t be made, we’ll be back in the ring in February or March. There’s no reason to wait,” said Deas.
Hearn isn’t willing to treat Wilder as a champion. Hearn sees it as business deal, not an actual sporting deal. If Hearn saw it as a fight for sports, then he would make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight without making Wilder jump through a hope by fighting Whyte first. But Hearn is trying to get the most money he can out of the Joshua vs. Wilder fight by him the Bronze Bomber increase his popularity by fighting Whyte. The thing is, Whyte isn’t very popular either. So even if Wilder destroys Whyte, it’s not going to do much to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight any bigger.
