Eddie Hearn says they won’t be using Dillian Whyte for Anthony Joshua’s tune-up fight on August 12th after the offer they made to him wasn’t close to what his management wanted for the rematch.
Hearn wouldn’t say what the amount was that the 35-year-old Whyte wanted for the rematch with Joshua, but he did say it wasn’t the $10 million that had been reported.
Some boxing fans believe that Hearn didn’t want to take any chances with Joshua by matching him against a puncher like Dillian because he’d be swinging for the fences, and he might get lucky and KO AJ.
With the huge money that Joshua will make the Saudis in December, Hearn may have had second thoughts about the wisdom of using Whyte as his opponent. There would be too much to lose in that fight.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the figure was close to that number because a fight between Joshua (25-3, 23 KOs) and Whyte would bring in a lot of PPV buys and sell tickets in large numbers.
Hearn says he has three possibilities that he’s going to choose from. He needs to get the fight over the line this week because he’s running out of time to finish the deal.
Hearn wants a good enough opponent to help Joshua prepare for his fight against former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in December in Saudi Arabia.
“Dillian never asked for 10 million for that fight. We did make him an offer, and the answer was, ‘That’s not near enough money,’ but he never asked for 10 million for that fight,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about Dillian Whyte not asking for $10M to face Anthony Joshua in a rematch.
Some boxing fans believe that Hearn used Whyte’s name to help Joshua duck a fight against Tyson Fury. Now that Dillian has served his purpose, he’s been sent on his way.
“I believe that fight is not going to be next for Anthony Joshua,” said Hearn. “As you know, we’re trying to close a fight this week. There are two or three opponents we’re looking at.
“I’m not going to tell you who they are, but we need to do it this week because the Saudis definitely don’t want us to fight in August, but we want to fight in August. I think it’ll be good for his career to fight in August. So that is still the plan,” said Hearn when asked who Joshua will be fighting on August 12th.
