Why did aj never fight Wilder and Fury but they fought eachother with no issues

It doesn't make sense for Wilder to be scared of joshua only to schedule a third fight with Fury after getting manhandled and destroyed in the 2nd one. However Fury and Wilder never had an issue fighting eachother.

 

Wilder was never scared of AJ
Fury was never scared of AJ
AJ knew he would probably lose to Fury and that Wilder had a decent chance of getting a KO against him but despite that I dont think AJ was scared to fight either
Eddie Hearn had a cash cow to protect

Deduce from that what you want

 

The narrative of dedicated Joshua fans is that everyone he didn't fight didn't want to make career high money against a chinny cash cow who could be defeated in a variety of ways.

They actually believe that LOL

 

Wilder's manager was very protective of him.

He fought Fury because he appeared to be shot after the long layoff and massive weight gain and then loss.

I'm sure Wilder himself would have fought Joshua, but his management refused to take the risk.

Fury has avoided AJ, and is still avoiding him now - Hearn wants to make the fight.

 

According to Hearn Wilder and his manager Finkel did not want 100 million dollars. That wasn't worth the risk of getting KO'd.
Wilder went on to get KO'd by Fury and Zhang for somewhat less.
But that's because he sort of mellowed.
I believe it, anyway. I can't imagine any boxer or manager wanting to risk a loss for 100 million dollars because you have to remember losing sucks and they might lose their belt.

The problem is that both teams are habitual liars.

 

Wilder admitted to turning down a huge deal to fight Fury instead for much less money. The quiet part is that he thought Fury was medically unfit.

Joshua most likely would have fought Fury but Wilder sued and won for the third fight.

 

Always came across to me like Fury and Wilder were using each other as an excuse to duck AJ. I mean they signed a multi fight deal out of ****ing nowhere right as AJ was about to fight Povetkin and with Fury only being back a few months still looking visibly out of shape and not remotely ready for big fights yet, and then proceed to both gang up together to say AJ was ducking them. It was weird.

 

I'd like "Things that never happened" for $100, Alex.

When did Wilder turn down a $100 million offer from Hearn to fight Joshua?

DAZN (not Hearn) offered Wilder $100 million to sign a three-fight deal with their network, beginning with the Breazeale fight. Wilder decided not to sign with DAZN.

If anything, Wilder turned down $33 million to fight Breazeale on DAZN, and took less to fight him on another network.

 

Like Ali-Foreman, Ali-Frazier 1, Ali-Frazier 2, Holmes-Cooney, etc., etc., Wilder and Fury were always able to make deals with each other because they agreed to split the PPV sales 50-50 or 60-40.

Foreman didn't ask for 75 percent of the $16 million for the Ali fight, they split it 50-50. Both got $8 million. Frazier didn't ask for 75 percent of the $5 million for the first Ali fight, they both got $2.5 million. In the rematch, they both accepted the exact same deal.

I believe the PPV split for Fight 1 was 60-40 in Wilder's favor. Fight 2 was 50-50. Fight 3 was 60-40 in Fury's favor.

It was all pretty close to even and fair. Both recognized the value of the other.

Even if the 50-50 split was a little less than they'd have made against Joshua, they knew their opponent wasn't making a ton more.

Joshua and Hearn, on the other hand, never saw the opponent as equal to Joshua. So the negotiations always started out negatively, with them denigrating the opponent, insisting Joshua deserved far more, and starting a pissing match with the other team.

Hell, to agree to get a fight with Joshua, Andy Ruiz even had to agree to take far less than Joshua in a rematch if Ruiz WON. Which actually happened.

Joshua and Hearn never treated the opponent as an equal, like even Ali and Frazier and Foreman did.

It was really that simple. If you want to make a big fight with another name, just offer the other fellow a 50-50 split of the cut.

If it was good enough for Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Fury and Wilder ... it's good enough for you.

 

Good summaries above. The irony is I believe Barry and AJ tought he would have a good few years left to make the superfights. Then the division took a few surprising but inevitable turns- and now AJ is finished at top level. We got robbed of the excitement of AJ-Wilder and AJ-Fury.

 

It's not too late. Fury should come back and fight as his tune-up, Dubois, who defeated AJ.

 

Both sides overbaked. It's shocking how so many deluded fanboys on this forum can't understand it.

Joshua was set to fight Miller, a beatable big mouth and the second biggest US name to build his profile in America. Meanwhile, Wilder fought Fury, a beatable big mouth and the second biggest name in the UK. These were CLEARLY the two setup fights before the big clash. Joshua ends of fighting Ruiz and gets battered, Wilder squeaks by Fury with a draw. The fight was on life support from that point on, and even if it happened, it would've lost a lot of luster as Joshua had been destroyed by Ruiz.

 

It was very clear what happened.

Despite all his posturing in the media about how the yanks were so difficult to work with, a joshua-wilder fight was never Hearn’s desire. Of course he’d have loved to make the fight in a perfect world but he preferred an alternative route.

That alternative route was for him to stage the first undisputed heavyweight fight since 1999 & to do it with both of his own in house matchroom fighters.

That is why hearn was pushing so much for dillian whyte down the WBC route. The real masterplan was to have whyte become mandatory for wilder, roll the dice in the hope that whyte won, then make the matchroom in house undisputed fight at wembley between joshua & whyte. Possibly with a rematch or trilogy involved.

Edward hearn has always maintained that his promotional idol is the bald headed wife beater from the UFC. He does everything in house with a monopoly. Hearn wanted that monopoly over heavyweight boxing & was very very close to getting it.

Unfortunately it all went south on 1st June 2019. Add in fury’s return at that time & the later arrival of The Cat put the final nails in the coffin of the masterplan

 

I think Hearn and Joshua regarded Wilder as the most dangerous fight out there for them. Hearn would trash him publicly but snippets from various interviews suggest he knew that Wilder could very easily land a right hand and end the fight at any time. Joshua would be nervous and gunshy, hedging his bets between a KO and points while Wilder would be solely looking to take his head off. Joshua isn't a defensive wizard, can't focus for every second of every round and Wilder was quicker and rangier.

The Joshua who quit against Ruiz in his American debut would eat a right hand and quit against Wilder, or get starched. The right hand that Dubois landed at the end of round 1 had Joshua on stilts and he doesn't recover well. I also suspect that Joshua was afraid of Wilder for racial (the infamous Eddie Chambers DM's) and nationalistic reasons: in one interview Joshua said that British fighters tend to lose to American fighters, mentioning Henry Cooper and Frank Bruno.

 

Wilder admittedly turned down a fight with Joshua for lesser money against Fury.

How people so adamantly blame Joshua for these fights not happening, is beyond me. And Joshua did accept a fight with Wilder later on, but unfortunately Wilder shat the bed vs Parker.