Hearn stated Wilders team sent email stating they will offer 50m for the fight. Hearn then asked them to send a contract and the details, Finkel then refused to send the contract without Hearn agreeing to the contract first ( of course he's not going to agree to it without seeing the contract details). Then Warren came out stated the 50m offer included it being in America (what AJ said he wasnt interested in ) and that it included that the viewing rights would be on BT ( which makes the offer void due to AJ's contract with Sky). It was effectively a propaganda stunt by Wilders team. Hearn has recently confirmed this week that he sent an improved third contract to Wilders team.
Hearn said that he had spoken to Haymon's representatives. The money was there and the decision was up to Joshua whether to fight or not. Hearn is on "damage limitation" now.
The money is irrelevant without the contract terms. No contract was provided with the offer and yet they expected Eddie to accept within 48hrs and wouldn't meet to discuss. No sane businessman would accept that. Not a real offer. PR stunt.
I think everyone realises that AJ and Hearn have got a cushy set up in the UK with sky shitposting ads for their fights on the whole Sky Network and also talking about it all day on sky sports news. That's the reason they didn't want to risk fighting wilder yet. they don't need the risk as they have a fool proof system to make money right now.
So Joshua rejecting a 50m$ guarantee that would run counter to his existing agreements and tied him to appearing on Showtime wasn't ducking. Good to straighten that one out.
Fury says he could best all these guys with one hand tied behind his back then refused to fight them after his Wlad rematch shenanigans it looks like a duck to me
I think it was an attempt at controlling the narrative that went wrong. Hearn and Finkel were in negotiation and the US side were questioning Hearns valuation and saying the fight was worth a lot more. If you watched Hearns ifl interviews at the time they were clearly offering to promote the fight themselves as they felt there was more money in it than Hearn was projecting. You may recall Hearns 'I could promote Beyoncé as long as I had her signature' line? He was saying that the only way the fight made money was with AJ and that was the ultimate source of the money they were bandying around. I think Hearn wanted to put them on the spot and briefed AJ accordingly, but he didn't want AJ going further and saying 'if I get that then I sign tomorrow'. That was one of the first missteps from them in some time and I don't recall AJ getting into any contract details since... They see that quote and the opportunity to turn the tables on Hearn who has been owning them thus far and they respond with 50m in the bag. Which to be fair to them was a good line and definitely put Hearn on the back foot. Was it genuine? Maybe with show times backing, because the underlying thread to this is DAZN and the threat it poses to showtime and other established interests there.
Had to laugh when Warren said that Fury wouldn't run and would take it to Wilder. Fury is only entertaining with a microphone and makes Klitschko at his most 'jab and clinch' boring look like Nigel Benn. I'm predicting pawing jab, lean away, pawing jab, clinch and repeat until hopefully Wilder lights him up with a bomb and puts us all out of our misery
I don't buy into all this "they kept mentioning Joshua!" whingeing. Joshua, Sky and Hearn can't open their mouths without mentioning Wilder. It's a two way street. I do believe Hearn's reputation took a battering. He was making out as if Wilder didn't want to fight anyone and was being a major diva in negotiations. Then, suddenly, he takes a fight with Fury with relative ease. Hearn comes out looking like a big plum.
I agree they came out ahead in the image stakes. Except comparing Fury 2018 to AJ at present is a bit unrealistic. One guy is the world number one, the other one is a big question mark at present.
It has, without a doubt. But not to a great extent. The replies and responses to his social media are much more against him in that regard than they were 5-6 months ago, in my opinion.
Wilder is the best cash out after AJ. Fury rejected Hearns offer and route to the AJ fight by fighting Kauffman, Bellew, Whyte then AJ. Tyson didn't fancy his chances going that route and made a counter offer to Eddie asking for 4 fighters the level of Pianetta and that Albanian then AJ. Tyson has now decided to cash out against Wilder instead.
