By Scott Gilfoid: After learning that he’ll only be receiving “less than half” of the money former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin received for a fight with Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KO’s), WBO champion Joseph Parker (25-0, 18 KOs) says he wants a fair slice of the pie for a unification fight against the Matchroom Sport fighter.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is reportedly denying that he made the low offer that is being reported by Parker’s promoter David Higgins. Hearn wants Higgins to pick up the phone so that the two can continue negotiating a unification fight for 2018. However, at this junucture, it’s unknown if the fight can still be made. Higgins wants a 60-40 deal, and that doesn’t appear to be in the cards for him.
Here’s what Parker said on his social media site to Joshua:
”Anthony Joshua, thanks for offering me less than half of what you paid [Charles] Martin, to unify! Do you really want to fight? Make a serious offer #NeverBeenDropped @d_higgins_duco @EddieHearn.”
Here’s what Eddie Hearn said on his Twitter in response:
”Your information is incorrect – come off the Internet and pick up the phone.”
The important question is how much of a percentage split is Hearn willing to offer the 25-year-old Parker to fight Joshua. It’s not a good sign that Parker is saying that he’s being offered less than half of what Charles Marin got for his fight with Joshua in 2015. That tells me that Hearn and Joshua have got a long way to go before they’re going to be able to lockup a deal for the Parker fight.
Parker’s promoter David Higgins wants to see what the financials are for the Joshua fight. He doesn’t want to be paid off with a flat fee for his fighter Parker to fight Joshua without him being able to see what the full financial picture is. This is going to be a huge fight, and there will be a lot of boxing fans ordering it on Sky Box Office. It’ll likely fill one of the stadiums in the UK, so there’s going to be plenty of loot to go around.
“I’m not sure what Parker was told, but his tweet was incorrect,” Joshua’s promoter Hearn said to skysports.com . “They haven’t even replied to my offer, other than via tweets. We are not interested in the he said. If they want to make the fight, then they should come off social media and pick up the phone.”
Higgins recently admitted that he had “pretty much given up” on the Joshua-Parker fight after receiving what he felt was an embarrassingly low offer given by Hearn for his fighter. Just how much movement Hearn will be able to make in bumping up his financial offer to Parker is the magic question. If Hearn’s initial offer to Parker was less than half of what Charles Martin received for the Joshua fight, then you can see that Hearn has got some long ways to go. If Higgins can get a percentage of the PPV and gate, Parker will make a massive amount of money for the Joshua fight.
“We’ve had clarification from Eddie. It was actually a little bit more than half that Eddie offered, but still how can Charles Martin be worth nearly double a unification against an unbeaten world champion named Joseph Parker?” said Higgins.
This sounds bad. Parker getting just a trifle of what Martin got for the Joshua fight. It sounds like it’s time for Parker to move on. If Joshua wants the fight badly enough with him, he’ll have Hearn sweeten the offer. Parker obviously wants to be able to wet his beak in the money, and he can’t do that if he’s not going to be getting a fair deal. Parker won’t receive the same kind of money fighting other heavyweights, but he’ll have less risk and a great chance to hold onto his belt for a long time. Right now, Parker’s only threat on the horizon is Alexander Povetkin. That’s a fight that Parker can potentially make a lot of money on if it takes place in Russia. If Parker gets past Povetkin, he could hold onto his WBO title for years.
If Joshua wants the WBO belt badly enough, he’ll add to the pot of gold enough to get Parker and his promoter Higgins to agree to the deal. It doesn’t look like Hearn is in the same ballpark as Parker. He’s not going to be able to get a shot at winning the WBO title on the cheap. Parker and Higgins are too knowledgeable to take the fight for what they feel it’s worth. It might be too early to make the Joshua vs. Parker fight. Sometimes it pays for fighters to walk away from deals if the money isn’t right. Look at Floyd Mayweather Jr. He waited on the Manny Pacquiao fight for 6 years, and ended up making considerably more than what he would have if he’d agreed to the fight in 2009.
Former unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury says he’s betting Parker will knockout Joshua if the two of them face each other in 2018.
”If Anthony Joshua fights Joseph Parker; I will bet anybody in the world £5000 cash the Parker will KO him,” said Tyson Fury on his social media site.
Well, Fury knows his boxing. If he says Parker will knockout Joshua, then that’s something you must consider as a very real possibility. Joshua was like an old 8-cylinder automobile in his last fight with Carlos Takam, puttering up a steep hill, backfiring all the way, and blowing out blue smoke from the exhaust. It looked to me like Joshua was going to have to pull over to the side of the road at any time after throwing a rod. Fortunately for Joshua, the referee jumped in and halted the fight prematurely in round 10. It might have gotten interesting if the Joshua-Takam fight wasn’t stopped. Joshua was in a state of exhaustion at the time. Takam made a mistake of coming into the fight with Joshua too light at 235 instead of his usual 249. Takam’s power wasn’t the same with him being lighter.