Anthony Joshua & Deontay Wilder have agreed to a two-fight deal with the Saudis, and their first contest is tentatively scheduled to take place on March 9th in Saudi Arabia, as long as they’re victorious this Saturday night in their respective bouts on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card in Riyadh.
The good: The two aging former heavyweight champions Deontay & Joshua, are expected to make boatloads of dough for the two-fight deal with the Saudis.
The bad: Joshua or Wilder’s careers could be effectively over depending on how the fights play out. Ideally, they would split a pair, and it won’t be a big deal for either guy. But if one of them gets beaten twice in a row, it would be bad for them, especially by knockout.
On the flip side, the money that they’ll be receiving from the Saudis will help cushion the blow of getting beaten. With the kind of kind of green that AJ & the ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder are expected to get for their two-fight deal, that’ll help ease the sting of getting destroyed. These fights would be golden parachutes for the two former champions.
Dan Rafael reports that the two-fight Joshua-Wilder deal is “contingent” on them winning on Saturday. “The contracts are expected to be signed before they enter the ring on Saturday.”
Former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) faces Otto Wallin this Saturday in a twelve-round headliner. Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) takes Joseph Parker in a battle of former champs in the chief support bout on Saturday’s card.
None of this will matter if Joshua or Wilder lose on Saturday, and there’s a better-than-average chance that at least one of them will get beat, perhaps AJ.
Charles Brun didn’t like the look of Joshua yesterday, as he had that thousand-yard stare that you see from a shell-shocked war veteran, looking detached like he’d seen too much horror in battle. That’s not something that is going to go away by fight time on Saturday when AJ enters the ring against Wallin (26-1, 14 KOs).
Eddie Hearn will be the fall guy if Joshua loses to Wallin because he’s the captain of the AJ ship and will be the one who will be royally dumped on for the decision to go with Otto as his opponent.
