How much money (as a ball-park figure) would initially be offered to Wilder for him to step aside and let Fury vs Joshua go ahead? And how much would it take probably take for Wilder to accept?
I would guess that it wouldn't be as simple as a figure. Deontay Wilder would do well to begin negotiations regarding his side of the play for the eventual fight between himself and whoever wins out of Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. I'd imagine that it wouldn't be the easiest of negotiations, with Deontay Wilder in such a fortuitous position. The more you think about it, the more it seems ridiculous for him to even consider facing Tyson Fury imminently. If he steps aside, he has more time to work on himself (and to analyse both Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury), he earns free money and he enjoys an excellent position in the negotiations for the undisputed bout.
Between $8-$15m So basically no he is not stepping aside. They'd probably give him up to $5m. Hearn and Arum will happily wait 6 months. AJ and fury will beat their next opponents anyway. They can build up the fight in this time also. Time isn't a constraint for AJ or Fury. Hearn wants to protect AJ for as long as possible anyway. Although The Ruiz loss means Hearn doesn't want to sit on a liability like AJ who can make a $100m fight but could easily lose to another plumber down the line. I suspect AJ Fury should happen in summer 2021. If not then AJ and Hearn are COWARDS.
If Wilder were to step aside, I'm not sure he would be in an excellent position in the negotiations for a unified (not undisputed) title fight with the winner of Fury vs Joshua. Fury is in a stronger position than Wilder for the third fight, getting a 60-40 purse split. If Wilder steps aside, then the winner of Fury vs Joshua would be in a stronger position than Fury is in now thereby weakening Wilder's negotiating position. But if I was Wilder, I'd still probably step aside on the condition that the winner of Fury vs Joshua fights him next and before any Fury vs Joshua rematch. This would allow him to: - earn money for doing nothing - have more time to prepare - have the opportunity to fight for five belts instead of one
Fury just needs to turn it up in the pre fight build up, no fooling around, talk about how he's going to seriously hurt wilder I think there's a good chance wilder picks up an "injury" before making it to the ring, he can't straight up not go through with the fight, but faking an injury to get out of if wouldn't surprise me. For those who will say "why not take step aside money" you have to understand Wilders ego is bigger than his brain
I think Winkle would rather roll the dice on the Fury fight. If they take step aside, unless they can force some kind of clause where they must fight the Fury-AJ winner next(maybe that's possible I don't know, but not sure if it can be enforced), Fury-AJ would just rematch a few times shutting Wilder out for 1-2 years. In that time Wilder could lose again too if he is a little damaged. If they lose the Fury fight, Fury and AJ fight for a few years and Wilder rebuilds and tries to get the winner anyway. If he beats Fury, he probably beats AJ and becomes the unified champ! Then he shuts Fury and AJ out for a few years. He still has a puncher's chance to be our king!
