By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn went into a serious rant on Tuesday due to Deontay Wilder choosing not to be at ringside this Saturday night for the Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
It’s so obvious that if Wilder were to appear in Cardiff this week, he’d have Hearn pestering him about fighting Whyte rather than Joshua. Instead of this being a week in which where Wilder can setup a big fight against Joshua.
It would be a week where he would receive incredible pressure to take the lesser fight against Hearn’s fighter Dillian Whyte. Hearn wants Wilder to fight Whyte, because he’s hoping he beats him. This week wouldn’t have been about Wilder being able to hype a fight against Joshua. It was going to be transmogrified into a week of Hearn hyping a Whyte vs. Wilder fight.
So if Wilder had showed up in Cardiff, he’d be doing Hearn a big favor by helping increase the popularity of his fighter Dillian Whyte. Wilder would have been a human 6’7” prop to assist Hearn in making his fighter Whyte a bigger name. It wouldn’t even matter if Wilder and Whyte never fight each other. Whyte’s popularity/notoriety would increase at the expense of Wilder, because of Hearn and the media talking up a fight between those two.
It wouldn’t matter that Wilder would tell Hearn, the media and the British boxing fans that he wants to fight Joshua, not Whyte. The push would still be for Wilder to face Whyte, so he could earn the fight against Joshua. Wilder would be in a one-down position to Joshua, and he’d be used to help increase Whyte’s popularity during the entire week. As such, Wilder would have been a vehicle to make Whyte a bigger name.
It’s sad that Hearn wanted Wilder to come to Cardiff just, so he could push the Whyte fight down his throat 24/7. That would have been a total annoyance for Deontay. Imagine him flying all the way to the UK, thinking he’s going to help himself hype a fight against Joshua, but only to find that he’s not going to get that fight and he’s not even going to be allowed to get inside the ring with Joshua after his match against Joseph Parker is over.
Hearn is HIGHLY upset at Wilder passing up the offer to be in Cardiff. Hearn says Wilder has blown his chance to help build a fight between him and Joshua. What Hearn isn’t saying is Joshua has no intention of fighting Wilder in his next fight. Joshua is likely going to be matched by Hearn against Jarrell Miller in late summer.
Hearn has already ruled out a fight between Joshua and Wilder. The only fight Hearn is offering Wilder right now is his Matchroom Boxing stable fighter Dillian Whyte. That’s it. So, basically if Wilder were to show up this Saturday night in Cardiff, he was going to be ambushed by Dillian Whyte, and the media would have been all over it, filming the ambush. Wilder would have been put in a position where he would have had to explain in countless interviews why he’s not interested in facing Whyte next. It wouldn’t matter if Wilder told the media that Hearn is pushing Whyte in front of him as an obstacle to protect his golden goose money-maker Joshua. The media would still pump Wilder with questions asking him why he doesn’t want to take the smaller money fight against Whyte.
“You want to talk about that geezer Deontay Wilder, who wants the fight [against Anthony Joshua] so bad and now he’s talking about not coming to Cardiff,” Hearn said to IFL TV. “Are you a joke? You’ve got the entire world media in Cardiff. You’ve got Dillian Whyte at ringside. You’ve got Joshua to build the fight to astronomical levels, and you want to sit on your [backside] for a fight you want so bad? Don’t give me that bull-s—t. You’re using Anthony Joshua’s name. He’s being paid by Sky a lot of money to come work for them this week. Dillian Whyte’s there. Anthony Joshua’s there. ‘I want to get in the ring.’ Bulls—t. Don’t talk about those fights if you have no intention of taking them. You’ve got two fighters [Joshua and Whyte] that will take his belt,” Hearn said.
You did notice the part where Hearn casually mentions that his stable fighter Dillian Whyte will be in Cardiff on Saturday didn’t you? That’s what this is all about. Hearn didn’t want Wilder to come to Cardiff, so he could help hype the Joshua fight. Heck, Wilder has already been told that he will NOT be allowed to enter the ring after Joshua’s fight against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker. This is about Hearn trying to hype a fight between Whyte and Wilder. Whether Wilder wants that fight with Whyte or not, Hearn was going to try and shove it down his throat by telling the boxing media left and right about how it’s such a great idea for Wilder to face Whyte. Hearn says he’s increased the offer for Wilder to face Whyte in June in the UK, even though he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want that fight.
Wilder wants the Joshua fight, which Hearn isn’t giving him. Hearn says Joshua won’t be able to fight Wilder until October, November or December. However, there’s talk that Joshua will be fighting in the late summer, but it’ll be against Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller. So, in other words, Joshua would be available to fight Wilder in the summer if Hearn wanted that fight, but he obviously doesn’t. Hearn is not interested in letting Wilder face Joshua yet. Hearn wants Wilder to face Whyte next, and that’s a fight that will pay only a tiny fraction of the amount of money that Deontay can make fighting Joshua. Why would Wilder want to come to Cardiff this week if all he’s going to be doing is being hounded by Whyte, Hearn and the media about that low-level fight rather than the Joshua match-up.
“We’re improving our offer now to Deontay Wilder,” Hearn said about increasing the offer to Wilder to face Matchroom Boxing stable fighter Dillian Whyte in June in the UK. “If he don’t take this fight, this is a joke,” Hearn said.
So, there it is. Hearn admits that he’s still looking to match Whyte against Wilder. Hearn is bumping up the $3 million offer he previously made to Wilder for him to fight Whyte. Hearn says if Wilder doesn’t accept the offer to fight Whyte, then he’s a “joke.” Why is Wilder a joke if he doesn’t want to fight Whyte? Wilder fought and beat a better fighter than Whyte on March 3 in Luis Ortiz. You can argue that the reasons Wilder doesn’t want to fight Whyte is because he’s being ordered around by Hearn in what fights he must take, and he’s setting it up to where it would put him at a disadvantage.
Since when is it necessary that a popular world champion must defend his title in his challenger’s hometown in the UK? Why would Wilder want to agree to give away home advantage to Whyte by agreeing to fight him in the UK? Hearn doesn’t understand what he’s asking Wilder to do. He’s the champion, so why should he agree to fight Whyte in the UK in the summer for money that is nowhere near what he’d get for fighting Joshua. Wilder has made it clear that he had wanted to come to Cardiff to build the Joshua fight, but instead he’s been told that he can’t enter the ring after the fight. Joshua even said that he doesn’t want Wilder to get inside the ring afterwards to get in his face, because they don’t have a fight signed. Wilder now has no reasons to come to the UK other than to hype a fight he doesn’t want against Dillian Whyte.
”I’ve been told he’s not coming,” Hearn said in continuing to complain about Wilder not coming to Cardiff on Saturday. ”The entire epicenter of heavyweight boxing is in Cardiff on Saturday. How bad do you think he wants the fight if he don’t come? Don’t give me all that, ‘All I want to do is unify the division.’ Come [to Cardiff on Saturday]. You’re getting paid. You’ve got a lovely hotel room. It’s not like it’s a chore. This is your job, but he don’t want it. He don’t want to get mixed up with Dillian. This is bulls—t. He’s happy fighting these geezers. I cannot believe he won’t come. First, he was saying a lot about getting in the ring. The board won’t let ayone into the ring after the fight to do interviews. I don’t know if all of a sudden, he’s realized that Dillian is coming as well. Dillian will be breathing down his neck. But who is advising these people? Can you imagine how much attention Deontay Wilder will get in Cardiff this week? More than he’s had in his last 10 fights put together. Those people need advice,” Hearn said.
I think Hearn needs to find some other fighter that he can try and push Dillian Whyte off onto, because Wilder is not going to be the guy. Luis Ortiz is a fine choice for Hearn to select for Whyte’s next fight. If Hearn offers Ortiz $3 million to come to the UK in June, I think he’d take the fight against Whyte in a second. But for some reason, Hearn has already dismissed the idea of letting Ortiz fight Whyte. I wonder why that is? Doesn’t Hearn have confidence in Whyte that he can beat Ortiz? If not, then he needs to go back and start combing the heavyweight ranks to find another old and slow guy like 38-year-old Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne for Whyte to fight in June, because it’s not going to be Deontay Wilder.
I don’t know why Hearn doesn’t offer Luis Ortiz the fight against Whyte. I think the Cuban talent will take the fight right away, especially with the kind of money that Hearn is offering. Hearn needs to make the offer to Ortiz if he believes in his fighter Whyte. Of course, it might be a different story Whyte fighting Ortiz than what we saw last Saturday night in the old, slow and inactive Lucas Browne being trotted out to face Whyte. That fight made Whyte look better than he is.
There are massive amounts of boxing fans that believe that Whyte has improved since his loss to Joshua in 2015, and his gift decision over Dereck Chisora in 2016. Frankly, I don’t see any improvement at all in Whyte’s game. The only thing I saw was Hearn found and easy mark for Whyte to beat and look good against in Lucas Browne. We already knew that Whyte could be soft opposition going into the Browne fight. Whyte didn’t prove anything with his win. Now if Whyte really wants to show the boxing world something, then he needs to agree to fight Luis Ortiz in June. It shouldn’t be a problem for Whyte to win, should it? Hearn believes that Whyte is the #2 best heavyweight on the planet right now behind Joshua. Well, if Hearn really believes that, then he needs to match Whyte against Ortiz.
”I’m not going to go into numbers, but it’s a significant increase in our offer,” Hearn said about him increasing the original $3 million offer to Wilder to face Dillian Whyte in June. “Those people talk a good game.”
Wilder has made it clear to Hearn. If he wants him to help him out by fighting his stable fighter Whyte, then he needs to pay him $7 million for the fight. Hearn’s original offer was less than half of that amount in $3 million. Hearn says he’s increased that offer significantly, but one gets the sense that it’s not anywhere near the $7 million Wilder is asking for. As such, Hearn is not going to get Wilder to agree to fight Whyte.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=214&v=NwWkW802L_M