By Scott Gilfoid: Joseph Parker’s promoter David Higgins says Anthony Joshua is refusing to compromise in the negotiations for a unification fight between them. Higgins wants a 65-35 split for his fighter WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs), but Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn are interested in giving him a lower figure.
Hearn has mentioned 70-30 as the split that he feels would be a fair one for the 25-year-old Parker. Mandatory challengers receive a 75-25 split. So, Hearn and Joshua are just barely putting Parker above the status of a mandatory challenger, even though he’s a world champion. You can understand why Higgins and Parker might not be pleased with the direction the negotiations with Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) and Hearn are going in right now.
Higgins has already given ground in the negotiations after initially asking for a 60-40 split. They backed off from this offer, and moved down to 65-35, but that’s not the figure that Hearn has in mind. He feels that Parker doesn’t bring anymore to the table than Joshua’s recent mandatory opponent Carlos Takam, who received a 75-25 deal.
“AJ is refusing to compromise and has drawn a line in the sand that we think is unreasonable,” said Higgins to skysports.com. “We started at what we thought was a fair ratio, and then a concession was given on our side,” Higgins said.
Oh my, this sounds bad. Why is Joshua and Hearn being obstinate in the negotiations? Hearn was banging on recently about how Joshua has already made his money and is set for life, and that it’s all about his legacy in boxing now. What happened to that? Hearn said that Joshua has to overpay these fighters to get them to agree to fight him. With a stance like that, it’s no wonder Hearn isn’t able to get the Joshua-Parker fight made. If he’s going to be thinking about money instead of Joshua’s legacy, he’s not going to get the fight with Parker. Joshua will wind up fighting his entire career against guys like Eric Molina, Dominic Breazeale and Carlos Takam.
If this is how Hearn is going to negotiate with fighters, I don’t see him ever being able to put together a fight between Joshua and WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder and Tyson Fury. Wilder has already said he wants a 50-50 cut of the loot for a fight with Joshua, and he’s not going to take a penny less. You can imagine Fury will be asking for the same thing, and I don’t see him giving in. If Hearn can’t produce the Parker, Wilder and Fury fights for Joshua, then where does that leave him? I have a pretty good guess. It leaves Joshua fighting Takam, Breazeale, Molina, Jarrell Miller and Dillian Whyte. Joshua should take the big money fights against Parker, Wilder and Fury while he’s still on top of his game, because I see a time coming soon where AJ is no longer on the top of the heavyweight division. I suspect he’ll get beaten soon by someone, and then beaten repeatedly. It would be better for Joshua to take the fights with Parker, Wilder and Fury while he’s still on the top of his game.
“Can you imagine Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis dodging unification because 65 per cent of profit is not enough?” said Higgins.
Higgins makes a good argument. I couldn’t see Ali and Lewis dodging a fight either if their opponents wouldn’t agree to a 65-35 cut of the revenue. Of course, I think Higgins is way off in lumping Joshua in the same class as Ali and Lewis. I mean, Joshua is nothing like either of those 2 great heavyweights of the past. Joshua is more like Mike ‘Hercules’ Weaver in my opinion. I see him more like Weaver than Ali and Lewis, who had a lot of facets their game. You didn’t see Ali and Lewis gassing out and getting dropped early in their fights. I never saw any of Ali’s fights in which he gassed. Lewis didn’t have Joshua’s stamina problems even in the last portion of his career. Lewis was an all-around better heavyweight than Joshua.
Higgins feels that Joshua has dug his feet into the sand and is unwilling to compromise. It might be best for Higgins and Parker to walk away from the negotiations and sign for a fight with Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne. If Joshua changes his mind later, he’ll let Higgins know that he’s had second thoughts. It’s Joshua who wants to collect all the titles in the heavyweight division. If he wants the chance to win all the heavyweight belts, he’s going to need to compromise to get the other world champions to agree to fight him. Given that Parker’s promoter isn’t asking for much more than what a mandatory challenger would be getting, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that he’s asking for a 65-35 cut of the revenue.
It doesn’t sound like Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn are ready to fight the other world champions in the division. If they’re going to stand firm on offering Parker just 30 percent of the revenue, then that fight likely will never get made. Likewise, I see the same situation when it comes time for the Wilder vs. Joshua and Joshua-Fury fights to get made. If Hearn offers Wilder and Fury 60-40 deals for a fight with Joshua, they’re going to be laughed out of the negotiation rooms. On the bright side, Joshua will be fine even if he never fights Parker, Wilder and Fury. Joshua can still make huge cash fighting the normal contenders in the division. Joshua has already shown that he can pack a stadium fighting the likes of Carlos Takam.
If the British boxing fans are willing to come in high numbers to see Joshua fighting guys like Takam, then he really doesn’t need to pay Wilder, Parker or Fury what they want for a fight against him. Joshua can give them take it or leave it offers, and if they don’t accept the smaller slice of the pie, then he can move on and continue to fill stadiums fighting the contenders in the division. Joshua is in a good position to play hardball with his opponents. If they don’t want to agree to his smaller offers of the money, he can fight whoever and still make big cash. Of course, Joshua’s legacy will be rather poor, as he’ll only have his win over the past his prime 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko to show as his best win over his career. Wladimir was nowhere near the same fighter he’d been during his best years of his boxing career, and yet he still came close to beating Joshua.