By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn is visibly frustrated at WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder for his relucatance to sign for a unification fight against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua for a big money unification fight on April 13 at the 100,000 seat retrofitted Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Hearn says Wilder has already previously agreed to the terms of the contract that he’s sent him, so he wants him to sign for the fight already so that he can start marketing it ahead of Joshua’s September 22 title defense against WBA mandatory Alexander Povetkin. Hearn wants Wilder to agree to the $15 million flat fee that he offered him already.
Hearn says he’s not going to increase the offer, since Wilder agreed to the deal one. Hearn feels he should still agree to the same offer because he refuses to increase it. As far as Wilder is concerned, the contract that he previously sent was only good for September and NOT for April 13. It’s too late for Hearn to use the same contract that he previously sent to him for September. Things have changed. Wilder has lost patience with Hearn, and he no longer wants to be the B-side. Wilder wants a 50-50 deal.
Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) is no longer willing to agree to the terms for the contract after Hearn chose not to make the Joshua-Wilder fight in September. Wilder and his team wanted to take the fight with Joshua for September, but Hearn was unable to give them a date or a venue. Instead of looking to complete the negoitiations with Wilder, Hearn had Joshua take a smaller match against Povetkin for much less money. Wilder’s team offered Joshua $50 million, but he chose to reject it. Hearn missed out on the chance to get the Wilder fight for a lot less money when he agreed to the $15 million flat fee that he offered him.
“We [Joshua] signed out end of the contract last week in New York and it’s been sent,” Hearn said to Fighthype about the contract being sent to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder for April 3. ”All the terms that have been agreed to by Wilder has been papered for the April 13th bout, and it’s been signed by us. He just needs to add his ink. I like to do that because it makes it a little more real. Cut the bull-[expletive]. Just sign now. All you’ve got to do is sign. All you’ve got to do is sign and it’s done. He just has to sign it and send it back,” Hearn added about Wilder.
It’s an unusual move for Hearn to send Wilder the same contract without letting him and his team have any input to changes that they want. That’s a one-sided method for negotiating that Hearn is attempting to do with Wilder. Hearn is giving Wilder a take it or leave it offer, and that looks bad, because it suggests that he lacks respect for him. Hearn needs to give Wilder a percentage deal now because that’s what he’s asking for now. Hearn is being tight-fisted with his negotiations and only offering Wilder a small flat fee for a fight that could make a King Midas level fortune for Joshua if Deontay is crazy enough to agree to the $15 million flat fee. Hearn doesn’t want to give Wilder a percentage deal, which is why the fight likely won’t get made for April 13. As long as Hearn and Joshua stubbornly refuse to give Wilder a percentage for the revenue for the fight, then the fight isn’t going to get made.
It’s believed by fans that Hearn NEVER wanted the Wilder vs. Joshua fight in 2018, because he wanted to make the Joshua-Povetkin fight for September so that he could have that fight for him to put it on DAZN to bring in some subscriptions, and then use the months to trash Wilder to try and get him to agree to the $15 million flat fee for April of 2019. What Hearn doesn’t seem to realize is he U.S fans likely won’t be interested in subscribing to his DAZN, because many of them are already tapped out financially with subscriptions to HBO, ESPN+ and Showtime to see boxing. Adding yet another subscription service is more than a lot of American hardcore boxing fans can handle. Hearn obviously isn’t helped by the fact that he has very little to offer the fans in the States for his DAZN streaming service. American fans aren’t likely going to want to subscribe to DAZN to see mismatches like Joshua vs. Povetkin, or to see Hearn’s other fighters Demetrius Andrade, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller, Artur Beterbiev and Daniel Roman.
”This fight (Dillian Whyte vs. Joseph Parker) is going to play a big roles on Saturday night,” Hearn said. ”If Dillian Whyte and win and look sensation, he’s really in the mix to take on Anthony Joshua, but only if Deontay Wilder doesn’t want to take the fight. It’s such a good fight, such a good tear up, and he wants to do it again. Joshua loves to fight. He wants a tear up, but he also wants to be the undisputed, and he can do it by fighting Deontay Wilder. That’s the absolute focus, but we’re also interested in this fight [Parker vs. Whyte]. Joshua is interested in this fight, because he says Parker is really, really fast, with great movement, sharp, but he thinks Dillian Whyte will win by knockout. And if he does, it’s a massive statement in the division. It’s a big fight in the division on Saturday,”
I think it’s pretty clear that Hearn is trying to build up Dillian Whyte to put the scare in Wilder to make him agree to the $15 million flat fee that he seems desperate for him to sign. The idea is if Wilder gets nervous enough about Whyte potentially taking the Joshua fight for April 13, then he’ll agree to the $15 million flat fee offer and will sign the contract without getting the percentage deal that he wants. So if the fight brings in over $100 million like many boxing fans believe it will, then Joshua will walk away with $85 million+ and Wilder will have to be happy with his $15 million flat fee. That’s an 85-15 split that Joshua would be getting. That’s pathetically sad if you’re Wilder getting the short end of the stick. If Hearn does let Joshua fight Wilder, it could be the end of the gravy train because if AJ loses badly to him, then a lot of boxing fans will desert him.
”I think ultimately he’s put himself in the frame, but we need to see more,” Hearn said about Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller being in the picture for a fight against Joshua on April 13 after getting in his face last week during the announcement for his new DAZN signings. ”It can be a big fight [Joshua vs. Miller], but it can be bigger. I would like to see him beat the likes of Dereck Chisora-Carlos Takam winner or something like that before we can start talking about an Anthony Joshua fight, but certainly he’s in the mix,” Hearn said about Jarrell Miller. ”After last week, we almost had a riot in New York, it made it a lot more interesting,” Hearn said about a future Joshua vs. Miller fight.
It’s clear that Jarrell Miller is being groomed for a fight against Joshua by Hearn. What’s interesting is that Miller was allowed to on stage and has a face-off with Joshua, but Wilder isn’t being allowed to enter the ring for the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight on September 22.