Wilder wants the fight now.
He has stated that he is willing to go to UK and let Joshua have the bulk of the purse split. When Joshua fought Joseph Parker, he gave Parker 33% of the purse. The Wilder fight is 10x bigger than that fight and all Wilder asked for was between 38-40% of the split which is very reasonable.
This could have been agreed upon very quickly, but Joshua’s team is playing games. ESPN breaks it down.
If Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) wants the fight with Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) next it sure doesn’t seem that way, regardless of what he says. It’s clear in the offer Joshua’s promoter, Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, recently made to the Wilder camp: a flat fee of $12.5 million, take it or leave it, for Wilder’s participation in the fight.
Of course, $12.5 large is giant money for most people, but for a fight of this magnitude it is not a serious offer. If Wilder’s team — managers Al Haymon, Shelly Finkel and Jay Deas, and promoter Lou DiBella — accepted the deal, they would be committing malpractice on behalf of their client.
For Team Joshua to take Wilder as a $12.5 million expense without cutting him in for a large percentage of an event that could generate in the high eight figures is a joke. When Joshua faced Joseph Parker to unify their three belts last month, the Parker camp got one-third of the money in the event. Wilder is worth more than that, obviously; he brings the last piece of the undisputed title to the table, he brings a bigger fan base and, on his own, he generates more money than Parker does.
If Parker is worth a third, Wilder is easily worth at least that much and probably even a few more points. His side has stated that it knows it’s not getting 50-50 and hasn’t asked for it, but to be offered a flat flee is not a real offer. It’s an offer meant for the Joshua team to be able to run around and say, “Hey, we made an offer and Team Wilder turned it down.” It’s called playing games, and it’s nothing new in boxing.
I don’t know if Joshua is scared or his team feels they want a few more big paydays before putting him in the ring with a legit in his prime heavyweight that can knock anyone down with one punch.
Sadly, this happens in boxing a lot, we will be lucky if we get Joshua-Wilder in 2019 or even at all at this point.