Will it ever happen?
The Joshua vs Wilder Heavyweight unification mega fight doesn't seem much closer to being made right now, after mixed reports and a lot of confusion with offers, and counter offers, leading to recriminations on both sides..
Anthony Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, reportedly offered Deontay Wilder a flat fee of $12.5 million a couple of weeks ago to come over to the UK and fight Joshua later this year, in a chance to unify the WBO, IBF, WBA titles with Wilder's WBC crown.
According to Hearn, this is more than 5 times what Deontay Wilder has ever earned for a fight, but straight away Wilder kicked it back, and his management team scoffed at the figure, insisting the fight should be worth upwards of $100 million by their calculations.
Joshua then said in an interview that if Wilder's team could offer him a guarantee of 50 million (pounds or dollars?) he would sign that contract tomorrow. A few days later, the "Bronze Bomber" apparently sent an email from his personal account offering Joshua the money with certain conditions attached, and that is where things got even more complicated..
Eddie Hearn is telling reporters he has tried to follow up on this offer, but that Wilder's management Shelly Finkel and Al Haymon refuse to meet with him or start proper negotiations unless Hearn and Joshua accept the offer first, which would be like Joshua signing a blank cheque according to Hearn.
The latest development is an email from Wilder's manager Shelly Finkel to Eddie Hearn, that has been leaked to the press, where Finkel writes that his side is willing to present a contract and show proof of funds as soon as Joshua accepts the offer in principle, so its hard to know which way things are going to turn right now.
Wilder and Joshua fans have been lighting up social media and online forums recently, with each side accusing the other of trying to duck the fight. And it definitely seems like there is no love lost between the management and promoters with all the trash talk going back and forth..
Which is a real worry, because these distractions can lead to the best fights not getting made at the right time, such as what we saw with the Mayweather vs Pacquaio saga which dragged on and on..
Most boxing fans were disappointed when that fight actually happened, as it was a bit of an anti-climax when it should have happened years earlier when both fighters were in their prime.
Whether this latest move is just a PR stunt from Wilder and his team its hard to know, but it does seem unlikely the fight will happen next, as both sides have clearly been looking to other options. Heavyweight contender Dominic Breazeale, who was knocked out by Joshua in 2016, has also pitched in saying he has been informed he will be fighting Deontay Wilder in August, as mandatory challenger for the WBC.
Eddie Hearn is unhappy about this as well, because he has invested a lot of money in trying to make his fighter Dillian Whyte the mandatory challenger for the WBC. Whyte is currently No. 1 in the WBC rankings and Hearn thinks there is some dirty tricks going on with the WBC now giving Breazeale the mandatory shot ahead of Whyte..
Anthony Joshua has also recently been told by the WBA that he needs to fight his mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin next, which would at least be a good fight, unlike the potential Wilder vs Breazeale match-up which I think should be a easy walkover for Deontay Wilder, even if it might be of some interest as an all-American world title clash for the US audience.