From the way Hearn was talking before the Parker fight it sounded like he wanted Whyte to face AJ before Wilder which never made sense to me as Whyte could conceivably knock Joshua out before he has a chance at Wilder. Way too risky imo to fight Whyte on the back of Parker before a potential Wilder fight.
But what does Dillian Whyte have to do to earn a shot at Dillian Whyte? Wilder wants Whyte to fight Ortiz to earn a shot at him, so by that logic Whyte must beat a fighter Whyte has beaten to earn a shot at Whyte. Whyte vs Browne 2 will earn him a shot at Whyte which will then earn him a shot vs AJ. Yes that must be it, Wilder's hybrid logic is clear one must beat a fighter AJ has beaten to earn a shot at AJ hence the Breazeale fight. Still doesn't explain why Wilder won't fight Whyte as by his own logic that earns him a shot at AJ. Hmmm this might be more complicated than I thought.
Have to say Hearn is getting a bit annoying with these demands. He wants Povetkin to fight him in June when he’s Joshua’s mandatory. He’s hoping Whyte deals with before AJ has to fight him.
He's just trying to get Whyte meaningful fights, which as a promoter he should be doing. Whyte wouldn't be happy if he was being ignored and all the meaningful fights were just going to AJ. Povetkin didn't have to take the Price fight either, was that Hearn demanding Povetkin fight Price, no of course not he saw and opportunity to promote a future fight with AJ by matching them up on the AJ/Parker undercard. Povetkin won't fight again until the at least October he only ever fights twice per year. Last time he fought 3 times in one year was way back in 2010. So Hearn likely wants later this year to have AJ hopefully fight Wilder and then likely have Whyte/Povetkin on the undercard with the winners to fight as a mandatory defence in early 2019. That's the perfect way to set up a possible Povetkin fight or Whyte rematch. If Joshua/Wilder doesn't get made then I am sure Joshua/Povetkin will happen later this year. What is getting annoying is everyone saying AJ is ducking everyone. He's ducking Wilder, he's ducking Povetkin, he's ducked Ortiz. He was even accused on this forum of ducking Parker to fight Wlad which is nuts.
Oh yea I get what your saying and I’m not accusing AJ of ducking anyone. But I do think there is an element of caution with Hearn wanting to match AJ with certain guys. Like he wants Wilder to fight Whyte before AJ cos part of him hopes Whyte beats him and AJ doesn’t have to fight him. I think he obviously wants to get the title shot for Whyte but his insistence on stuff like this seems a bit weird. Povetkin puts Price away brutally in front of 80,000 on PPV and now all of a sudden he wants Whyte to fight him. I might be reading too much into this but Wilder/Ortiz/Povetkin are genuine threats to AJ IMO. Wlad was a calculated risk and I don’t think they ever saw Parker as much as a threat.