Hearn says Joshua vs. Wilder still first priority next, but Fury is also possible for April 13

By Boxing News - 12/03/2018 - Comments

Image: Hearn says Joshua vs. Wilder still first priority next, but Fury is also possible for April 13

By Tim Royner: Promoter Eddie Hearn says WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is still the #1 option for his fighter Anthony Joshua for his next fight on April 13, but Tyson Fury is one of the options for AJ after his strong showing last Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Hearn states that he had Fury beating Wilder by two rounds.

Fury says he wants a long rest after his fight with Wilder, and that makes him not a strong option for Joshua’s next fight on April 13.

Hearn likely is aware of Fury saying he wants a long rest, but he’s mentioning his name anyway as one of the possible options for Joshua’s April 13 fight. The more Hearn talks about Fury being a backup option the better his chances of getting his intended opponent Wilder to agree to a reduced price for the Joshua fight.

Joshua wants the last heavyweight world title not in his possession, and that’s the WBC belt that Wilder has. Hearn remarks that his priority is to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight, but he says he’ll look to make Joshua-Fury if he can’t put that deal together.

Hearn states that he believes that the Joshua-Wilder fight now has a better chance of taking place after last Saturday’s Wilder vs. Fury fight, which ended in a controversial 12 round split draw on Showtime pay-per-view in the United States. Hearn doesn’t say what he means exactly, but it appears that he thinks he can get Wilder to agree to a smaller percentage than what he was hoping to get. It’s well known that Wilder wants a 50-50 purse split for the Joshua fight. However, Hearn has been talking about offering Wilder far less than that from 80-20 to 60-40. After Wilder’s draw with Fury, Hearn might be emboldened to offer him a 70-30 split or lower in a take it or leave it offer.

”The way that fight went on Saturday works in our favor in terms of getting Wilder,” Hearn said to the dailymail.co.uk. Now, let’s say he had beat Fury in two rounds – the negotiation will be a lot harder than after a draw where many think he was lucky to keep his WBC title. That goes in our favor.”

Hearn sounds like he thinks he’s going to be able to get Wilder to agree to a Joshua fight at a considerably reduced price than what he was originally asking for. He could be very wrong though. Wilder is still the unbeaten WBC champion after his 12 round draw against Fury. Wilder knocked Fury down twice in the 9th and 12th, and he came close to scoring a knockout in the 12th. The referee let the fight continue after Fury was down on his back from the 12th round knockout. It looked like Fury was unconscious, but the referee let it continue.

Hearn says hes going to be traveling to Los Angeles, California this week to meet with Wilder’s management to continue negotiations for a fight between him and Joshua for April 13 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

The most likely opponent that Joshua will be facing for his April 13 date is Dillian Whyte, as long as he beats Dereck Chisora in their rematch on December 22. Whyte is signed with Hearn, and he’s one of Joshua’s stable-mate.

“I was very impressed with Fury on Saturday. I had him winning the fight by two rounds,” Hearn said.

It’s too bad Hearn wasn’t one of the three judges that worked the fight. If Hearn was on the judging crew, Fury would have won. Unfortunately, Fury didn’t win, so it doesn’t matter that Hearn thinks he did. If Hearn is going to use his opinion of the results of the Wilder-Fury fight to try and get Wilder to agree to the lesser purse split for the Joshua fight on April 13, he could be barking up the wrong tree. Wilder is still unbeaten, and still the WBC heavyweight champion. Fury, 30, failed to take the title from Wilder after tasting the canvas twice in the latter part of the match last Saturday night in Los Angeles. As many boxing fans thought Wilder won as they did Fury, which means the public was split in their opinion of who the winner was. Ideally, Wilder and Fury should face each other in an immediate rematch, with Joshua fighting the winner of that bout, but it’s unclear that’s going to happen next. Wilder says he’s willing to fight Fury a second time, but it has to be what the boxing wants. It also will need to take place in the United States, not in the UK. That’ where Wilder wants the second fight, in the U.S. If Fury and his management insists on the second contest taking place in England, they could end up with no fight. Wilder is the WBC champion, and Fury the challenger. That means Wilder calls the shots in where the rematch will take place with Fury.

It’s still debatable whether Hearn actually wants to match Joshua against Fury or Wilder. By Hearn saying that he thinks Fury won the fight by two rounds against Wilder, he’s now in the position to give Deontay an offer so low that he’ll never agree to it. Hearn could then tell the boxing fans, ‘Well, I tried to make the Joshua-Wilder fight, but Wilder wouldn’t agree to my fair offer.’ What the boxing fans wouldn’t know is how much the offer was from Hearn. If it’s the same 80-20 offer that Hearn had talked about wanting to give to Wilder, then there’s little chance that a fight between him and Joshua will ever take place. A mandatory challenger gets 25% for a title fight. Hearn talking 80-20 for Joshua-Wilder means that he views Wilder as being even below a mandatory challenger for a fight with Joshua. Hearn offering that kind of money to Wilder suggests that he has no intention of making the fight with him and Joshua in 2019.

Hearn has Wembley Stadium on reserve for April 13, and he needs a big name to sellout the large 100,000 seat stadium. Wilder or Fury would be perfect for Joshua, but they would also bring in a huge amount of risk. Hearn wants Joshua to continue to win so that he can bring in the money. There’s no guarantees that Joshua can beat Wilder and Fury. That’s why there’s a very good chance that Joshua will be fighting Dillian Whyte on April 13 at Wembley. Joshua has already proven that he can beat Whyte. Besides that, Whyte is one of Hearn’s own fighters in his Matchroom Boxing stable. It’s an ideal situation for Hearn to match Joshua against Whyte rather than Wilder or Fury. Hearn gets the best of both worlds by putting Whyte in with Joshua on April 13.