The management for WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has made a big $50 million counter offer to IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing for a unification fight, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
The $50 million is part of a 50% split of the revenue, which Team Wilder believe will be at least $100 million. If the Joshua-Wilder fight makes more than $100 million, then Joshua will make more than his $50 million.
Wilder’s management’s offer of $50M is a counter offer of the much smaller $12.5 million flat fee offer from Hearn, who said that he offered the 6’7” Deontay doesn’t rate a percentage because he’s not as popular as Joshua. Hearn says that Wilder fights in front of smaller crowds in the U.S, and he’s not the same draw that Joshua is.
There’s no rematch clause in the contract. The Joshua vs. Wilder fight would take place sometime between the months of September and December. Wilder will be the one making the decision for the venue for the fight.
Finkel said the offer contains no rematch clause and that it stipulates that the fight be next for each man and take place between September and December at a site of Wilder’s choosing. The offer was a counter to the $12.5 million flat fee Hearn offered Wilder earlier this month.
Hearn has said all along that Wilder doesn’t deserve a 50-50 purse split for a fight against Joshua, and that he would never make the fight with him asking for that percentage split.
It’s likely that Joshua and Hearn will reject the $50 million counter off from Wilder, and instead move on to face WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin next followed by American Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller. Those are the fights that Hearn is eager to make. He’s sounded much less excited about putting together a fight between Joshua and Wilder unfortunately. The $12.5 flat fee offer from Hearn was a clear sign to some boxing fans that Hearn has no interest in putting Joshua vs. Wilder fight together.
Team Wilder’s offer of $50 million seems like a fair one given how much cash this fight with Joshua will be raking in. It’s believed by a lot of boxing fans that Hearn wants no part of making the Joshua vs. Wilder fight in 2018, because he still has a couple of easy paydays for AJ to fight with Povetkin and Miller. Once those fights are out of the way, it’s possible that Hearn will be serious about wanting to make the fight with Wilder. If Hearn starts talking percentage split with Deontay, then you have to believe he’s serious. However, if Hearn is still only interested in offering Wilder another flat fee, then it’s clear that he wants no part of letting him share the ring with Joshua.
Joshua has a good thing going right now with the British boxing public being willing to pay to see Hearn’s matches that he’s making for him against the likes of Joseph Parker, Carlos Takam, Dominic Breazeale, Wladimir Klitschko and Eric Molina. Klitschko and Parker are the only quality opponents that Joshua has fought since turning pro in 2013. Klitschko knocked Joshua down and almost beat him in 2017. Parker had Joshua hurt as well in their fight last March. That was a very strange fight in which the referee kept pulling Parker off of Joshua when he was on the inside.