Fight fans the world over may well be sick and tired of the whole Deontay Wilder-Anthony Joshua thing but the saga is ongoing. The fight, as we all know, will not be happening here in 2018, but Eddie Hearn is hopeful the fight can and still will happen next year, on April 13th to be exact.
Speaking with iFLTV, Hearn spoke of the two-fight package he has personally e-mailed WBC heavyweight champ Wilder. Hearn says he has offered Wilder $5 million to fight “anyone he likes” in September or October in a “tick-over fight”, and also $15 million to come to Wembley in London to fight Joshua next April. Hearn added how the $5 million offer is not reliant on Wilder agreeing to fight in the UK, that he can fight in New York.
Hearn’s offer may seem too good to be true – seeing as how, as Hearn said in the iFLTV interview, Wilder makes less than half that amount for his fights – but the promoter is insistent that Wilder can pick ANY fighter he wants. Hearn did mention Dominic Breazeale, Wilder’s mandatory and likely the man he will face next anyway, so Wilder will be a fool if he turns down Hearn’s offer, right?
“There is some great news because, again, whether you believe me or whether you believe [Shelly Finkel], the truth is gonna come out because I haven’t withdrawn the offer,” Hearn said in speaking with IFL TV. “The offer is still there. He can sign for that fight today, tomorrow, Friday, next week, and it’s on. So if you’re so disappointed, if you’re so devastated, if you’re so gutted, if you can’t believe this has slipped through the net, it hasn’t. Show me the comments on Friday. Show me the comments next week if you need a little bit more time. It’s still on, so if you want it, it’s still there. We’ll see if you want it. And even better than that, we all know I’ve not mentioned the $15 million, but it’s all out there. That is the fee that he was offered. Last night, I sent Deontay Wilder an email. [I wrote to him] I’m very, very disappointed in your team. They never came back to me on comments on our contract. But great news – the offer is still there at $15 million to fight the next available date at Wembley Stadium, which is April the 13th
“And even better news, I’ll give you $5 million just for a little tickover in October or September against an opponent of your choice in New York. Because you turned down $5 million to fight Dillian Whyte, but that was probably a little bit too tough for you. But the great news is you can fight Breazeale, who AJ boxed in like his 16th fight or something like that. He had glandular fever, but that was back then, no problem. Or you can box someone even a little easier, someone that you boxed already, for $5 million. So I’m offering you $20 million over two fights to fight a tickover and to fight Anthony Joshua on April the 13th. So you don’t have to take a tickover in September, October. But you’re gonna get considerably less to box in September or October if you don’t take it. But no problem. You can just sign [to fight] Joshua in April. But if you want even bigger money, if you want a little bit more security, if you want to earn more over two fights than you can anywhere else, that offer is there for you. It was extended to him in writing last night and we will see. But my focus is for him to sign the Joshua fight.”
So will Wilder take Hearn’s offer? Contractually, will he be able to do so?
Wilder is still fuming at the Joshua fight falling apart (for now) and he wrote a letter to the world’s fight fans via twitter:
“Dear Boxing Fans, well, I tried. I tied to give you guys the biggest fight of your lives, the most exciting fight in world history, Wilder wrote. “The first undisputed, undefeated unified heavyweight champion Of the world since (Lennox) Lewis. They tried too you know. They asked for jungle deep numbers just to get out of the fight not knowing we were hustlers, so we served’em (The Money’s in da bag) Just like a game of spades. What he do? Just told a bold face lie, he’s not a stand up guy. Instead, he wanted to fight in his country, I respect that. They offered me a ‘flat-fee’ (crack head money). Something that’s equivalent to a pack of peanuts, a loaf bread and a jar of honey!
“Look, I represent the dirty south and I am a product of my environment. Bama [Alabama] is where I made it out. This is survival food, so I’m used to it. So I said, give me the gun I’ll do it. I just basically took the lowest offer in boxing history for a unified title bout (brain dead). My team and I bent over backward accepting everything they threw at us just to find out this boy is terrified of me, p****.Three months of tea parties by grown men and they didn’t even have the British hospitality to offer biscuits with the tea! – Damn. I said all that past s*** to tell the story and to apologize, I’m sorry guys they played us all.”
We await a written response or a public statement from Joshua.