Why did Wilder turn down $7M to fight Whyte to take $2M to fight Ortiz?

This. Ortiz would exploit every single mistake Whyte makes and stop him in the mid rounds. Whyte doesn't have Wilder's stamina and power to overcome Ortiz's skill.

Whyte struggled with a shot Chisora and couldn't stop Helenius, who only had a weeks notice. Duhaupas destroyed an undefeated Helenius.

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Ortiz is mid-fifties, irrespective of what he says

 

According to Ortiz' cousin, Ortiz is 59 years old, his cousin had known him all his life, others who knew him say the same thing, I thought he was around 50, but he is older................Wilder is afraid of Whyte, he refused huge money to fight him Wilder is also refusing huge money to fight Joshua, instead Wilder will fight Breazeale next, Haymon owns Breazeale and Breazeale was knocked out by Joshua, that qualifies Breazeale. Joshua will fight Povetkin, Miller next or a report says Vlad might be fighting a rematch with him...................Wilder will not fight Vlad either.............

 

Now you know why Deontay flunked math class.

 

It's exactly the kind of thing we routinely ask of other title holders. I'm sick of people justifying fighting a lower ranked opponent because of the paycheck. I'm not a fan of purses I'm a fan of fights and Wilder fought the best man he could. For that I congratulate him.

 

Why do Joshua fans want Wilder to fight guys they think will beat him? Shouldn’t they want Joshua to get the huge payday?

 

Because the Joshua fans want Wilder to be more popular in the UK before he meets AJ. Wilder knocking out Whyte in front of 20.000 wild British fans would do wonders for Wilder's brand in the UK.

 

I suspect he resented Hearn telling him what to do.

It’s also not like that 7m was written in stone. It’s hard to believe a Whyte/Wilder fight would be that big. Joshua didn’t make that much versus Whyte, and I’m sure that fight was much bigger.

Still. Even if it wasn’t 7m, it was probably a lot. I continue to suspect it was Wilder retaliating against Hearn’s commands.

 

Are you kidding? Ortiz is more skilled and dangerous than Whyte. Ortiz outboxed Wilder and almost knocked him out. And I think Ortiz knocks White out. Ortiz is still very dangerous, despite his age.

 

I believe the true offer was around 4 million, which is still close to double what he got for Ortiz.

 

i applauded wilder for it the time / i applaud it afterwards

IMO the ortiz win did more for his legitimacy than all his other fights combined
you have to treat wilder with more respect after the ortiz fight

dont worry about wheter you like him or not/ dont fall into bias that ortiz was 50 years old /slow/fat /shot/

the fight showed v wilder that ortiz was still very much a threat in the heavyweight division and wilder got the job done

does not matter how he got the job done he won and that is what counts.

ortiz is a much better all around fighter than whyte even at 39.;
whyte is durable and tough but is never going to be as well rounded as ortiz .

ortiz was before and is after a harder fight for wilder than whyte would have or will be in the future.

money wise it made not 1 bit of sense whatsoever to fight ortiz over whyte / but its not always about money.

 

Fair enough…it’s more than a little risky according to many of the comments I’ve read though…I just really want to see Joshua and Wilder fight, it’s big regardless…

 

Ortiz is a Haymon fighter. As is Wilder's next opponent, Breazeale. So was Gerald Washington and, I believe, Arreola. So four of Wilder's most recent five fights (Stiverne was mandatory) have been against Haymon fighters. Not sure how many before that.

In other words Deontay does what Uncle Al tells him to do.

 

There was plenty of evidence that Ortiz was a fighter on the down slope available to anyone who watched his last three fights. Was this due to removal of PEDs or age catching up with him? Difficult to say, but he didn't look the force he'd appeared to be a couple of years ago. But he still had an aura in Wilder's home market and would satisfy his domestic critics and the network who were apparently fed up of seeing Haymon feeding him stiffs.

Whyte on the other hand was a potential banana skin. A heavyweight in his prime, not controlled by Haymon and with the potential to derail the progress towards a lucrative unification bonanza. After all, the fight would be taking place overseas, in front of a hostile crowd and with all the potential for an upset that entails.

Has anything in the ten year construction of that 40-0 record suggested that this is a management team that wants to take risks? Once Ortiz signed with Haymon there was only going to be one choice. When the referee delayed the fight at the end of the 7th interval to allow Wilder to be inspected that decision presumable paid off.

 

Yes this is why, Wilder doesn't fight anyone but Haymon fighters unless it's a mandatory like Stiverne.

I don't think Washington was a Haymon fighter at the time, but he was a let replacement for Wawryzk who failed a doping test and he's a Haymon fighter.

Haymon will not risk losing control a world title if possible. He'll only do it for crazy money and Whyte simply wasn't the most lucrative option. Haymon milked Martin and sold his IBF title for as much as $8.5 mill according to some reports to fight Joshua, he'll want far more to risk the WBC title. Hearn better be prepared to get squeezed, Haymon will likely want options on Joshua too, like he did when Joshua fought Martin.