By Tim Royner: Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn feels that there could be a break through scenario in the near future where either Deontay Wilder agrees to the 60-40 purse split that he wants him to take to make the undisputed heavyweight championship fight or Joshua will wear down and agree to the 50-50 split that Wilder wants in order to get the fight across the finish line.
As of now, Hearn still maintains that Wilder doesn’t deserve a 50-50 split to fight Joshua, because he hasn’t made the kind of money in the past. Likewise, Hearn states that it’s not really worth it for Joshua to take the fight with Wilder at 50-50, as the money that Joshua will make won’t be much of an increase from what he’s already getting for fights against the likes of Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, Alexander Povetkin and Joseph Parker. Hearn feels that if Joshua is going to take a risky fight against Wilder, he should get a lot more than he normally gets rather than just a slight increase in money. However, unless Joshua gives Wilder the 50-50 deal that he’s asking, he’ll never get a chance at winning the World Boxing Council title unless someone comes along and defeats the Alabama native.
“Wilder will make quadruple to what he’s ever earned before,” Hearn said about Wilder making considerably more money than he’s ever earned before if Joshua gives him the 50-50 split. “That may end up happening with either side,” Hearn said about Joshua or Wilder finally giving in and agreeing to either take a 60-40 split on Wilder’s part of a 50-50 split on Joshua’s side. “Maybe Wilder will turn around and say, ‘Give me the 40 percent. I’m going to knock him out.’ Maybe Joshua will turn around and say, ‘Give me 50-50. Let me knock him out.’ That’s what it’ll probably take [to make the Joshua vs. Wilder fight]. Wilder will get quadruple what he’s ever gotten. Joshua won’t. That’s where the difference is,” Hearn said.
It’s more likely than not that Joshua will continue to reject the idea of giving Wilder 50% of the pot, and instead stubbornly stick to the idea of giving him the 60-40 deal.
Hearn’s backup plan to get his hands on the WBC title is to try and pressure the sanctioning body to make Dillian Whyte, who he promotes as part of his Matchroom Boxing stable, the immediate mandatory for the winner of Wilder’s fight against Dominic Breazeale. If Hearn can get his way, Wilder or Breazeale will need to fight Whyte next, and they may lose to him. Of course, Hearn will have just as much trouble, if not more, trying to work a deal between Whyte and Joshua than he’s had attempting to put together the Joshua-Wilder fight.
It’s easy to see a future scenario where Whyte, with the WBC belt in his possession, would be asking for a 50-50 deal for a fight with Joshua. The thing is, Joshua vs. Whyte II, is a smaller fight worldwide than Joshua vs. Wilder. The American boxing fans have no clue who Whyte is. The hardcore U.S boxing fans know of Whyte from his sloppy, foul-filled performances against Dereck Chisora and Joseph Parker, as well as his seventh round knockout loss to Joshua in 2015. There wouldn’t be much interest in American fans in watching Joshua fight Whyte on DAZN. That fight likely would attract zero interest from U.S fans. Hearn is better off cutting a deal with Wilder for the Joshua fight than trying to get Whyte to take the belt from Wilder, hoping he can somehow make a deal with him for the Joshua match.
“It doesn’t come down to me,” Hearn said to Fighthub when asked why Joshua simply won’t agree to give Wilder the 50-50 purse split to make the fight happen between them. “He’s [Joshua] making much more money than Deontay Wilder. You’re talking about a guy that has consistently earned more money than Wilder has. Up until two years ago, Wilder was making around $3 million per fight,” Hearn said.
Hearn is still stuck on the money that Wilder used to make, and comparing it to what Joshua has consistently made. Hearn fails to see the big picture. Wilder has the WBC title, and Joshua wants the strap. As long as Joshua isn’t willing to give Wilder the 50-50 split he’s asking for, he’ll have to be content with being a three-belt champion, fighting the likes of Jarrell Miller, Povetkin and Whyte rather than the the guy that holds the WBC strap, Deontay. There’s no point in Hearn banging the drum constantly for a Joshua-Wilder fight if they’re not prepared to give Wilder the 50-50 deal he’s asking for. He’s told Hearn and Joshua repeatedly what he wants for him to agree to the fight, and yet they continue to harp about why he’s not agreeing to the fight. It’s kind of confusing why they don’t move on already, and consider it a lost cause.
“It’s not much more than what he’s making already at 50-50,” Hearn said about Joshua in arguing that he won’t get a big bump up in pay from what he normally makes if he gives Wilder the 50-50 split that he wants for the fight. “If it’s a massive fight, and there’s all this risk and it’s the undisputed championship, I should be making a lot more than what I’m already making. Wilder at 40 percent, Joshua at 50%, isn’t really. There’s not a lot of difference in money from what he’s making at the moment,” Hearn said about Joshua not getting a much bigger payday than what he normally enjoys for his fights if he gives Wilder 50% of the share of the revenue for the fight.
If either fighter loses, it’s game over. They can till fight each other, but the interest from the boxing public will drop off next to nothing. Joshua has a better chance of losing his next fight than Wilder does, because Miller is a volume puncher with a good chin and and excellent punching power. In other words, Miller is all wrong for Joshua, who gasses out easily when he’s forced to fight hard. Joshua could fall apart against Miller, and wind up getting stopped in their fight on DAZN on June 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York. A loss for Joshua will have Hearn wishing he’d applied more pressure to him to get him to get the Wilder fight when both were still unbeaten.
“Joshua-Wilder is getting bigger, bigger and bigger,” Hearn said. “It’s twice the size now than it was last year. Maybe next year it’ll be twice the size again, but maybe someone gets beat, and then we can never do it. It’s like landing a fish. I feel the right time is now. After the Breazeale-Miller fights, we’re going to jump on it [Joshua vs. Wilder negotiations],” Hearn said.
