Hearn says he would pay Wilder $15 mil to fight Breazeale

Does this mean that the 15 million he offered Wilder to fight Joshua was trash?!

 

I just raised this point in the same discussion on the British forum and the Hearnz bumsquad went into full meltdown to protect their bumlord.

 

Deontay would never turn his back on Al Haymon and the bomb squad. Certainly not for Eddie's dirty money. There's just some things money can't buy. Lol.

 

No. It's more than he likely made fighting Fury and it would've been far more than he'd ever earned before. Given the market at that time and how much he brought to a uk fight it probably represents market value. Hearn acknowledges the market has changed since Wilder vs Fury. So values change accordingly.

Also important to remember that events in the boxing landscape are helping fighters like Wilder irrespective of their own exploits. Wilder v Breazeale isn't worth 15m, it's having Wilder signed to DAZN for the period from that fight to the conclusion of the undisputed hw story. Eddie can afford to overpay wilder, because Dazn want wilder fans signed up for several months, which in turn is going to increase the chance of them becoming the long term customers the platform needs to survive. They can even make the first AJ Wilder a PPV if they hold on to a rematch on their platform, that could be the way of getting maximum value.

 

One final point. If you think Wilder beats AJ (I don't, but he has a chance) then there is a good argument that he would've been better off taking the fight then, regardless of what he's offered now. Wilder may not have long left at the top. If he becomes undisputed his earning potential skyrockets for the rest of his career.

So a truly confident team would get the AJ fight sooner rather than later banking on extracting more revenue from subsequent fights.

 

TBF this should be obvious to anyone with a pulse.

Not only is he fortunate enough now to be in a position to take advantage of the changing landscape, but he's even more fortunate that in Wilder's cherry-pick gamble those judges robbed Fury of a deserved win, because he'd have absolute **** all leverage had he lost that.

 

I know, it does belong in the bleeding obvious category, but based on what some people post on this topic I thought it worth stating nonetheless...

 

It was at the time. When they offered him 15 his highest pay was 2.1 million. As his stock has risen so have the offers.

 

The offers are becoming a little silly to be honest. With Fury going over to ESPN and AJ doing his profile no harm whatsoever in the States of late, it's Wilder who is now left in limbo land. Wilder has the Breazeale fight but, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Breazeale could earn more fighting Whyte than Wilder.

It makes total sense to me for Wilder to at least talk to Hearn about the offer given how he is now a 'free agent'. If there isn't at least a discussion between Wilder and Hearn then I don't see how the unification fight is ever going to be made while Wilder holds the WBC belt (hostage).

 

Notice nobody making the case that this isnt a great offer, its all emotional keep it black stay with al Haymon fighting for way less and not giving us the fights we want run of the mill stuff. Forget Wilder, WIlders FANS dont even want to see him in these fights, they know what will happen, theyd rather have a paper champion than no champion.

 

Making sense has never been Wilder's strong point. It's interesting though that it's the two British fighters that have come over and are now making big money in the States while Wilder, the homegrown fighter, is left fighting for chump change and desperately holding onto a meaningless belt that shouldn't even belong to him anymore. I can't think of a fighter that's undermined his own value more thoroughly than Wilder.

 

People who are saying DAZN or ESPN is destroying the PPV model are high.

So are people who are saying Wilder has undervalued himself or is dumb.

First, regarding PPV, don't kid yourselves.

If Wilder fought Fury on ESPN, they'd put it on ESPN PPV (like they are doing with Crawford-Khan).

If Hearn is now willing to pay Wilder $15 million to fight Breazeale on DAZN, he'll have to pay Wilder a lot more than that to fight Joshua (and Joshua will want more than his normal MILLIONS to fight Wilder, too.) So Wilder-Joshua would be on PPV in the U.S. as well (just like every Joshua show is and will always be on PPV in the UK.)

The PPV model isn't dead. Arum already tipped his hand in that regard by putting Crawford-Khan on ESPN PPV and Hearn is only going to increase the price of PPVs in the UK now that they are getting used to paying for them.

Fact is, Wilder, Joshua and Fury all fought on Showtime. They all could've faced each other on Showtime PPV in the U.S. But Joshua left to fight on the DAZN app in the U.S. and Fury left to fight on the ESPN+ app in the U.S.

And now that they (Joshua and Fury) are locked-in to those companies, they BOTH need Wilder to justify the salaries they are making.

Joshua can't win any more belts without Wilder. Fury can't win any without Wilder (because a Fury-Joshua fight is off until Fury's deal with ESPN ends).

Wilder is the key.

Wilder won't fight for Arum because Arum wants Wilder to sign with ESPN+ for a number of fights.

Wilder MIGHT sign the Hearn offer, but he may not.

Frankly, Wilder doesn't need either. His price is only going to go up because he can fight on other networks. FURY AND JOSHUA CAN'T.

Wilder is about to make his NINTH title defense. Hell, they could put it on network television and draw MILLIONS of viewers and raise Wilder's price even more.

Fury had the Wilder rematch in May, and he walked away. Now, they'll never have a rematch until Fury's ESPN deal ends (so Fury better fight FIVE TIMES in 2019 if he wants it to happen in 2020).

Wilder-Joshua may happen after Wilder-Breazeale. But Eddie might have to blow his whole budget to make it happen.

Wilder played it correctly by staying put while everyone else thought the grass was greener in the "app" world.

 

Of course, they would put Wilder-Joshua on PPV.

Just like the PBC started putting fights on PPV. Just like ESPN is going to put fights on PPV. Just like Matchroon already puts the fights you see on DAZN on PPV in the UK.

Don't be naive.