By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says a fight between Anthony Joshua & Deontay Wilder is now “locked in” for December in Saudi Arabia, but AJ must beat Dillian Whyte on August 12th, or else the Bronze Bomber clash won’t happen.
In other words, the Joshua-Wilder mega-fight ISN’T locked in. The fight is conditional.
Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) is in a position to act as a spoiler to foil Joshua’s huge $60 million+ fight against former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) next month on August 12th on DAZN pay-per-view at the O2 Arena in London, England.
If Whyte upsets Joshua, he’s going to make a major production, crying & complaining if he isn’t allowed to swap places with AJ to be the one getting the $60M mega-money fight against Deontay on the Saudi’s card in December.
Hearn needs to be ready for some major bellyaching from ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte because he’s going to complain something fierce if he can’t be the one getting all that loot from the Saudis in December, and he would have a reason to.
Interestingly, Hearn says it was Joshua’s call to take the Whyte fight on August 12th instead of him, and it’s clear that he’s been the one banging the drum for this half-baked plan.
It’s evident from listening to Hearn already distancing himself as being the creator of this fight, he wants to escape blame if Joshua is knocked cold by Whyte.
“This one [Joshua-Whyte rematch] is wild because AJ has the Wilder fight locked in for December,” said Eddie Hearn to talkSPORT Boxing about what’s on the line for Anthony when he fights Dillian Whyte on August 12th.
If the fight with Wilder is locked in for Joshua, then why is he bothering with Dillian? Who needs the 35-year-old Whyte if Joshua is already “locked-in” to fight Deontay in December? If this is just a case of greed on AJ or Hearn’s part, they could be sorry that the $60 million payday evaporates on August 12th.
“We had meetings last week with the Saudis,” said Hearn. “Obviously, that’s one of the biggest fights in boxing, and he wanted to fight in the interim. He’s been working with Derrick James, and he wanted to have that fight, and he was insistent that it was Dillian Whyte.
“I wasn’t over the moon because I know it’s dangerous; it’s a fight that’s built off emotion; they don’t like each other; you saw what happened last time at the O2,” said Hearn.
As you can see, Hearn is already looking to squirm out of being the originator of the idea of Joshua using Whyte as his tune-up. Why can’t Hearn just admit that he was the Dr. Frankenstein that created this monstrosity?
“It’s going to be an absolute firefight on August 12th, but I was with him last night. This is the one he wants,” said Hearn of the Joshua-Whyte rematch. “He wants a fight it can get up for. He doesn’t want to have a nothing fight for the fans.
“This is a fight that’s going to ignite British boxing as well, and yeah, massive fight for both men,” said Hearn.
