For the past few months Wilders representatives have ignored repeat offers to negotiate a Joshua fight. Clearly pinning their hopes on the Tyson Fury rematch, the lack of response, failure to explore other options and sheer arrogance they've shown have left them with minimal options for Wilders next opponent. I predict Wilder will likely continue where he left off before the Fury fight, fighting low to mid level opposition with only giving lip service to making the big fights a reality. Although it may not initially appear so, Fury signing with Arum is a positive move toward the Joshua vs Fury fight. Arum has stated in December that Haymon and PBC will not work with other promotions, this has been the case (aside from a few minor fights) for the majority of PBC's run and thus put Wilder in a difficult position in finding a viable opponent. On the contrary, Arum and Hearn have a relationship at least enough to make fights happen. If Fury does indeed pull out of the Wilder negotiations then Wilders only viable opponents will be Whyte & Breazeale, both of whom have already been stopped by Joshua. Al Haymon and his cronies will have to take a slice of humble pie if they want to make anything of Wilders career moving forward.
Not really. Wilder gave Joshua and Hearn a whole year to close a deal with him, but Hearn kept giving him flat fee offers that gave him 2-3 fight options on Wilder, so I don’t blame Wilder for not taking Hearns current offers seriously, since Hearn was only making the current offers because he knew Wilder was completely focused on securing the Fury rematch. If Fury pulls out Wilder still has the Whyte-Breazeale winner, an Ortiz rematch, or a match with Kownacki. That said Wilder still holds the WBC belt and is still the most important American fighter to beat, so even if Joshua and Fury fight the winner will still have to fight Wilder, so Wilder still has a strong position in the division.
They were offered deals based on Wilder's marketability before the Fury fight, which in my estimation were fair and significantly more than he would go on to earn in the Fury fight. This just goes on to prove what I said, the arrogance they showed in not "taking offers seriously" as they had pinned all of their hopes on the Fury rematch. Wilder is in the same position as he was which is as a heavyweight champion that can't carry a PPV solo.
Did you actually look at those deals. Wilder didn’t initially have a problem with the $15 million that Hearn was offering, but he had a serious problem with giving Hearn options on him for 2-3 fights and said from the get go that he wouldn’t sign any deals with options attached to it. I don’t know if any of the current offers that Hearn is making have options attached to them, but considering Hearn wasted a year of his time with bogus offers I don’t see Wilder entertaining any offers to fight Joshua for anything less than 50-50 across the board. The Wilder-Joshua fight might not happen, since Hearn doesn’t seem willing to let anyone fight Joshua without giving Zein future option on them as a way to hedge against Joshua losing. When Takam, Parker, and Povetkin signed deals with Hearn to fight Joshua they had to submit to Hearns demand of giving Hearn options on them for future fights. Miller had to directly sign with Hearn to get the Joshua fight.
I don't think it's as bleak as you make out for Wilder. He still has the WBC title which means if Joshua wants to unify he has to face him. He was offered 60/40 with a minimum guarantee of $15 mill and I'd assume that's still on the table later on down the line if the Fury fight doesn't get made. The real danger is if Wilder/Fury goes to purse bids and they lose the bid for Arum/Warren or Hearn. That puts him in a position he may not like where he's forced to fight on ESPN or DAZN or be stripped. I don't think Wilder vs the winner of Whyte/Breazeale happens because if Wilder has to go down the mandatory route I'm sure the WBC will scrap Breazeale/Whyte and just mandate Wilder fights Breazeale. I'd also assume that if Fury who has grown his brand to the extent that he can get a rumoured £80 mill 5 fight deal, which is £16 mill or about $21 mill per fight, Wilder too will have grown his marketability and fan base and can now demand more money, though nowhere near as much as Fury as most believe Wilder lost that fight, but he won't be on $1-2 mill per fight like he was before.
The options were on the rematch and a very normal thing to happen in boxing when fighting an A side fighter. This had nothing to do with Wilders career should he not have decided on further fights with Joshua. Again this is a very normal thing, which is less to do with what Wilder wanted and more to do with Haymons inability to cede any control of Wilders career even if it is to the determent of his career. Which again, goes on to prove what I originally said, so really all you're doing is further helping my point.
The reason my statement may appear "bleak" is based on Al Haymons business practice, Wilder is now 33 and could genuinely lose to B fighters like Whyte and Kownacki. Missing the opportunity to make the Joshua could be a serious blow both financially and for any kind of legacy Wilder wishes to leave. It's also potentially a serious blow to fans.
Hearns says a lot of things that often later turn out to be lies. Hearn gave Ortiz his word that he’d get the Joshua fight after stepping aside to let Joshua fight Wlad, but Hearn didn’t keep his word. Also, the options weren’t just a rematch clause, but involved at least 2-3 fights after Wilder was done fighting Joshua. Also Wilder made it clear that he wanted absolutely no options attched, which included even a rematch clause if he was going to go to the UK and fight Joshua for a flat fee. Also, have you ever seen Parker’s contract to fight Joshua? It gave Hearn 5 future fight options on Parker, so I doubt Hearn will ever offer Wilder a fight with Joshua with no strings attached. Wilder had no problem fighting either Luis Ortiz or Fury without binding either to an options deal.
You can't debate with Wilder fans. They are worse than Canelo fans, and that's hard to be haha. The fact is, Wilder played himself and Fury screwed him and used him. Now Fury will be fighting for 20 million a fight, AJ will be fighting for 30 million a fight and Wilder will get 1-2 million per fight, if he's lucky hahaha. Wilder fans can spin that all they want with the split, the rematch locations and everything else but at the end of the day, Wilder played it all wrong and now he is left out of the big fights and he may lose his belt for a lot less than he would if he took the AJ fight at Wembley.
