ESPN says Joshua vs. Parker to be finalized “soon”

By Boxing News - 12/08/2017 - Comments

Image: ESPN says Joshua vs. Parker to be finalized “soon”

By Tim Royner: The unification fight between IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and WBO champion Joseph Parker will “soon” be finalized.

There’s no word on what the purse split is for the Joshua-Parker fight. As of Thursday, Parker’s promoter David Higgins had been talking of Joshua’s promoter offering less than the 65-35 deal that he was asking for. However, there was only a few percentage points that separated the two sides from getting the fight agreed on. It’s not surprising that the

”I am told the Joshua-Parker fight will be finalized soon,” said Rafael.

If the Joshua-Parker fight can’t get made, Joshua will fall back on his Plan-B option of either facing Dillian Whyte or Jarrell Miller. Parker will likely face former WBA champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne. It won’t be the end of the world for Parker. You can expect negotiations to restart after he makes a title defense against the likes of Browne. Hearn and Joshua aren’t going to give up on trying to a hold of Parker’s WBO heavyweight title. It’s too important to forget about that belt.

Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) will make a lot of money fighting Joshua, even if he has to take the smaller slice of the financial pie. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been trying to make Parker and Higgins see the bright side of them taking the smaller end of the pie by giving them hope that if they win, they’ll get a better revenue split in a rematch. Joshua isn’t going to walk away from the fight without trying to avenge the loss.

Getting the Parker fight done is a priority for Hearn. He wants Joshua to have 3 important fights in 2018 with Parker being the first one. The other 2 fights are matches against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury. The end goal for Joshua is to have all 4 world titles in his possession by the end of 2018. He has the IBF and WBA right now. Joshua defeats Parker, he’ll pick up the WBO belt from him. The only title Joshua would need to win after that is Wilder’s WBC heavyweight strap.

Collecting the titles is the start for Joshua. Once he has all the title belts, he wants to start defending them all against the top fighters in the division to try and hold the belts for as long as possible. Hearn believes he can keep them for 10 years.

The tough belt for Joshua to win will be Wilder’s WBC title. Getting the fight made will be extremely hard for Hearn. Wilder says he wants a 50-50 deal of the revenue. That might kill the chances of the fight getting made until Wilder backs off that request.