Hearn: Wilder has lost the plot

Considering its only the 07/08 six weeks out from AJ v Povetkin I think its pretty safe to say the hype for the AJ fight will be much higher as the fight gets closer.

AJ is a different animal altogether and Sky/Matchroom havent even started yet.

 

i'm talking about the fans, no one really cares that much.

Sky/Matchroom haven't started what, the promotion?

 

Yes.

Like I said before some were saying Bellew v Haye 2 nobody cared that much and the PPV numbers came out and they were pretty much the same as the 1st fight.

AJ v Povetkin do numbers similar to what AJ always does or it could even surprise. AJ v Parker did over 1 mil which was unexpected.

The idea that the 'Casual' has little interest in AJ v Povetkin is simply laughable.

 

The PPV numbers never come out.

AJ getting over 1m buys in a unification is not unexpected.

The casual does have little interest in the fight. They got caught up in the Wilder negotiations like the rest of us and were expecting that, which deflates any excitement they may have had. Sure people will buy it, it's boxing and its AJ, people will buy it just because, but the numbers won't surprise anyone.

 

I'm probably going to get jumped on by one side or the other, but in truth it's a mixture of various factors:

Hearn: Apart from the obvious risk the fight brings, Hearn is having trouble getting the required # of headline fights for his DAZN deal, and is therefore more than happy to make Joshua-Povetkin, Joshua-Whyte II to put on DAZN (Joshua-Wilder would be Showtime PPV for extra $$$). Hearn feels that since Wilder won't play ball in terms of building up the fight, he's under no obligation to offer Wilder decent money. From his view, Wilder has avoided his fighter Whyte time and time again so it's only fair if Joshua gives Wilder the run around in return.

Joshua: He wants the fight, but only in the UK - he doesn't like the idea of going to the US against a truly dangerous opponent. He has a strong relationship with Hearn and generally will do what Hearn thinks best.

Wilder: He does want to fight Joshua, he's happy to come to the UK, and he's willing to take the shorter money; BUT he's too proud to accept Hearn's demand to build the megafight up in the usual fashion by fighting someone like Whyte in the meantime, which he should have done awhile ago. In addition, Wilder must take some of the blame for the numerous weak defenses on his record.

Wilder's team: They want the fight because it's the best money around. However, they are part of the problem because until the Ortiz fight they had no belief in Wilder and gave him weak opponent after weak opponent to crush, which is why Wilder is the clear B-side.

 

The PPV numbers come out when Hearn reveals them or we can look at the Barb ratings website which gives us a good indicator of what the number was without being 100% accurate.

When the promoter says AJ v Parker surprised him and got close to the AJ v Klitchko PPV number I would say its a surprise. They never expected it to do that well as while Parker was champ he wasnt well known.

Given where Whyte is right now. Him v AJ next year would do huge numbers.

 

Whyte has a better resume than Wilder.

 

Who said anything about influencing Wilder? Hearn can't control what Wilder and his team choose to do, but he does have to defend his fighter against the implication that he's in some way ducking Wilder.

The answer which you referenced in the OP is the result. The reason you are so sick of hearing it repeated is because Hearn is repeatedly asked the question. He's repeatedly asked the question because Wilder, his representatives and associated journalists keeps making the accusation. At which point, saner minds will look at the evidence of Wilder's career to date and draw the obvious conclusions.

So the circle is completed.

 

Considering AJ is doing 1 mil+ on PPV and has a profile way bigger than Whyte I think we can say his fight vs Povetkin easily does 800k.

The numbers are made public by Hearn when he decides to and as I said you can look at the Barb ratings.

Whether you believe Hearn makes the numbers up is up to you but I dont believe Sky would allow that.

 

It matters if you identify a difference between what he claims to want to do and what he actually does do. He claims to want to fight the best, the evidence suggests otherwise. Objective analysis suggests he's full of it.