Hearns response to the Duco press conference

If Parker was confident he would take the fight and then get paid double for a rematch

 

Well he says they are close

 

It's all business, and risk versus reward. At the end of the day x amount of money is available to the fighters, if you are stating confidence - you're basically stating this is about risk versus reward and given that they want more than twice the reward and you are agreeing that Parker needs less, this fight must be less than half as risky for Parker than it is for Joshua?

If the split indicated confidence then Joshua should be more than comfortable going 50:50 right?

Additionally, if Joshua was mega confident and he felt Parker isn't a threat then he'd not be pushing for every last percent - he'd just get it done, add the belt, and go and fry those bigger money fish he feels are out there.

All that in mind, and your association of the split reflecting confidence - Joshua must be scared shitless of Parker or the fight would already be on.

 

I just hope Joshua doesn't price himself out of the fight.

 

That makes no sense at all. Regardless of the risk involved, why would Joshua push for a pay cut? Parker is being offered at least 3 or 4 times his biggest payday and demanding more. Joshua will probably make no more from the Parker fight than he did against Takam.

 

That is kind of my point.

Parker's biggest pay day so far hasn't been as high as it could or should have been due to things outside his control, at this stage it sounds like he has paydays which could be at least as high as he's currently got on offer from AJ's team in much lower risk fights.

If Parker can potentially make more money elsewhere, then the split isn't worth it to him. Same goes for Joshua. The risk will no doubt factor as well, but either way - as per my first comment I ACTUALLY meant (remember, the stuff you are replying to was me mocking ligers angle... not ACTUALLY how I felt about it) ... this is all just business.

 

I see this argument regularly but Joe is a bigger draw then Takam and the difference will be made up in extra PPV buys + NZ and the pacific will add buys.

Even if you don't think Parker adds in value by himself, the fact that he's a belt holder is definitely adding a few extra numbers considering Takam was a late replacement and has not won any of his previous high profile fights.

If AJ vs Takam did 1mill
AJ vs Joe would do 30% more in the UK plus a much greater global audience, add another 100k in NZ @ the equivalent of £30

That would make up for the difference in %, AJ will still probably get a career high pay day, he only took 50% against Wlad

 

Lol. Don't think it quite works like that.

Just shows all AJ and Hearn care about is dollar. Not belts, not history, not the fans. Just cold, hard cash.

 

Hearn. Make the fight happen, and open up your purse strings a bit.

Nobody likes someone with gorse pockets.

 

At least AJ admits he aims to be a boxing billionaire

There are other high profile guys who deride blokes looking to make money and say they fight for pride and belts. These guys only ever seem to be moaning about purse splits and refusing to budge on numbers.

These hypocrites need to practice what they preach!!! So do their fans!!!

 

Part of the reason he does is that he's in a position where people are going to throw money at him no matter what he says. He (sorry, "His account") made racist and abusive messages to another boxer and it was pretty much ignored by the media and Joshua's fanbase. He's becoming untouchable, good on him.

The reality is other boxers and promoters are just saying and doing what they can to try and get themselves a bit of that spotlight, it's business for all of them.

 

Imagine if Deano comes back for the AJ vs Parker fight.

Higgins and Deano would be epic **** talking, they would put the likes of Whyte to shame
Add in their bodyguard big Francois Botha tuning people up and we have ourselves PPV gold

 

And this is part of the problem and I'm actually a Joshua fan. But at the end of the day fans pay all fighters and promoters salary. And fans don't care about how popular fighters are. Fans care about who are the best fighters.

So what does Parker bring than Takam doesn't? So while I don't think Parker is a great fighter some people do and he does have a belt. Not many people think Takam is a great fighter and he has no belt.

At the end of the day Joshua or any other fighter will lose popularity if it is perceived they aren't taking the tough fights or are ducking guys. Because remember the only things fans care about is who is the best fighters. Fans don't care about the financial or commercial side. And while I appreciate that promoters must care about these things fans don't.

Of course this is one of the reasons boxing has lost so much popularity. The fights pitting the best guys against each other are often not made in boxing. In no other sport does that happen. In tennis if you are ranked number 1 there is no question you are the best player in the world. In you are the nba champions there is no question you are the best basketball team in the world. And that's why fans love sports in general, because they love competition and want to know how the best is. It feels like to many fans you aren't always getting that.

Too often in boxing a guy somehow becomes a mandatory when he obviously shouldn't be(Stiverne for instance) and win a belt and try to milk it for as long as possible. Could you have imagined if Stiverne had won the belt it would have been a very bad look for boxing because NO one consider Stiverne a top 4 heavyweight. And while I understand this isn't a problem for a fighter or a promoter to worry about it does hurt the sport. For the WBC lost credibility for having Stiverne as the mandatory. The WBA loses credibility for having so many mealiness belts. There aren't that many fighters particularity good ones in the HW division to have so many belts. All the organizations lose credibility when they don't have mandatory style VADA testing like the WBC does.

Back to Hearn/Joshua. Boxing isn't just about which fighter is more popular. One of the reasons Joshua is so popular is he has the look of a "monster". He has the height, the muscles and he knocks everybody out. But if people suddenly start to believe that guy isn't a monster then he loses popularity quickly. Obviously Hearn knows this. Also obviously Hearn knows just that the quickest way a fighter can lose credibility is people think he is ducking someone.

So the less popular can force more popular fighters to the negotiating table this way. Now the problem Parker has is most people don't think he can actually beat Joshua. The view Parker as just a guy trying to sell his belt.

But again fans care about who is the best fighters not who has the most social media followers.

 

Hearns impersonation of Parker and Higgins is quite funny, even though its a typical mock, it got me smiling.

Anyway, Hearn, please just give the 35%. You hold the key to Parker vs Joshua. Its all up to Hearn.

 

I can see Duco walking away and signing Browne to fight.

Seriously. I give it 2 weeks.