By Scott Gilfoid: If things go as Eddie Hearn plans, he could be wrapping up a deal for a unification fight between IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and WBO champion Joseph Parker in the next 2 weeks.
Hearn believes he’s close enough now to where he can get the deal completed if Parker’s promoter David Higgins flies over and meets with him in a one-on-one meeting. Hearn wants to sit down and grind out the deal.
Hearn thinks he can have a better chance of getting the fight agreed upon by Higgins and Parker if he can see him in a face to face meeting. Of course, if Hearn only wants to meet with Higgins so he can try and get him to accept the deal that he’s not happy with, which is less than the 65-35 cut that he’s been asking for, then it could be a waste of time for him to meet with him.
“There’s a good chance [Parker’s promoter] David Higgins will fly over in the next week to try and close the deal,” said Hearn to Sky Sports News. “We feel like there is a deal that can be in place with Parker and his team within the next week or so. Sometimes when you’re this close you need to get face-to-face and eye-to-eye,” said Hearn.
Hearn says if he can’t get the deal done in the next 2 weeks, then he’ll need to start looking at an alternative fight for Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) to fight. Hearn wants Joshua to fight in March or April. There are several options that Hearn will be looking at if he can’t arrange the Johsgua vs. Parker fight.
The backup options for Joshua are as follows:
• Fight WBA mandatory challenger
• Dillian Whyte
• Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller
The fight against Jarrell Miller would take place in the States if it happens. Joshua vs. Whyte would be held in the UK.
Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) is still the main objective for Hearn, since he’s close to having that fight me. But it looks like Hearn wants to try hard to get Parker to come down from the 65-35 revenue split that he and his promoter David Higgins are asking for. Parker has already come down quite a big from the 50-50 and 60-40 splits they were asking for in the past.
Hearn has rejected those offers, as he has the 65-35 offer. But where Hearn is now, we’re now getting into the area where Parker will be getting mandatory challenger type money if he drops down much lower in his request. With Parker being a world champion, it doesn’t make sense for him to agree to the type of money that a mandatory challenger would get for fighting Joshua.
It’s almost better for Parker to move on rather than accept a deal that is beneath his value. If it was me, I’d walk away from the deal Hearn is offering and go and fight Lucas Browne. By Parker giving Hearn time to think, it might prime the pump and cause him to give him the money he wants from the deal.