Is Joshua ducking Dubois

12.5 million was still 6x bigger than Wilder's highest earning at the time. Deontay was a nobody, fighting nobodies until 2018. He was generating no revenue. Was just hyped up by Americans.

And 120 million dollar deal was confirmed to be legit by both sides. And Wilder just didn't take it,

 

I agree the 120 million DAZN deal was very generous, however that was a good 18 months later from when we are talking about and when Haymon suddenly started paying his boxers bigger purses to stop their heads being turned by Hearn and his check book with Wilder being one of them.

We wanted to first see this fight at this time and Hearn was dicking around with stupid flat fee offers. Regardless of what Wilder had earned previously and they ended up paying Joseph Parker 28% which was more than £12.5 million. The truth is that they didn’t want to risk AJ at that time (god knows why, because I personally have always thought Wilder is / was absolute pish).

 

Since 2017 Wilder and his camp was blocking the fight demanding 50/50 split. Then he got a flat free offer, which wasn't good, but wasn't terrible either looking at Wilder's previous earnings. Wilder finally accepted the flat fee but wanted a rematch clause and then... refused to sign another deal when the rematch was in. At most, except for 120 million dollar deal of course, he was offered 60/40 split during the negatiations. He still didn't take it as he was on his "we're blocking AJ out" ish with Fury.

 

Whatever you need to tell yourself mate. Barry Hearn admitted they didn’t want Wilder in an IFL interview, it’s easy enough to find.

Don’t tell me, AJ would have smoked Lennox no doubt in your mind too.

 

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I simply can not wait until AJ & Fury both retire so we don't have to listen to years & years of this mind numbing s##t anymore.

 

I was just saying to someone in another chat elsewhere, the thought of AJ-Fury is not exciting any more. It’s years too late and the winner will claim some sort of generational ascendency they don’t deserve. There’s a bit of me cheering for Dubois and Usyk and then we can all move on.

 

I feel the same, and its a shame as that fight 4 years ago would of been excellent on every level but now I couldn't care less and as for the build up - it would be all so painfully predictable

Fury and his 'fighting man' comments
AJ coming out with his 'humble' act
John Fury shouting off about anything
Eddie and his 'three time World Champion' bs making out boxing didn't exist before AJ.

They have both had good careers, won belts and earned a fortune....but both been found levels below the one true world class heavyweight in this dire era.

Now can they please,please just call it a day so we can get our sport back

 

I don’t know why this myth won’t die. Whyte had a chance to be Wilder’s mandatory.

The WBC wanted him to fight Ortiz and Whyte is the one who refused to go through with it.

 

TLDR: Whyte v Ortiz being for a second mandatory position was obvious BS. Seemingly, the PBC/WBC's goal was to muddy the water enough, that enough people ignored them successfully blocking Whyte's route to Wilder.


Granted all this was extremely messy and convoluted, but below are some CliffsNotes of the time line. It is far murkier than what is below. A lot of behind the scenes politics and conflict of interest involving joint PBC-WBC execs-advisors with financially invested interests in Wilder.

2016
WBC Title eliminator 1: Chisora v Whyte 1
Whyte wins
Cancelled Final Eliminator: Stiverne v Povetkin
Final Eliminator: Stiverne v ???

2017
Whyte puts himself forward. Don King is allowed to choose the PBC's Dominic Breazeale as a stand-in.
Cancelled Final Eliminator: Stiverne v Breazeale
Stiverne elevated to mandatory to fight Wilder.
But now Breazeale holds a contracted fight as a final eliminator.
Negotiations begin for Breazeale v Whyte.
PBC don't like the offer. Look for an opponent for Breazeale
WBC Silver title: Whyte v Helenius
Whyte wins
Title Eliminator 2: Breazeale v Molina
Breazeale wins

2018
Logically...
Final eliminator: Breazeale (#2) v Whyte (#1)

Wilder DMs Whyte he will never have to fight him. (Believe that or not, but just some background)

Tail wagging the dog:
PBC/Wilder floats the idea that Whyte should fight Ortiz instead. Ortiz (PBC) having lost to Wilder as a voluntary defence. The WBC agree and try to make Breazeale (PBC) mandatory and order Whyte v Ortiz (PBC) for second mandatory.

Legal action
Whyte threatens legal action. WBC back down, obviously.

2019
WBC finally order
Final eliminator: Breazeale v Whyte

Fury pulls out of immediate rematch. Breazeale (PBC) is elevated to mandatory status. Ortiz (PBC) gets a rematch anyway. WBC suggest Whyte v Fury. Negotiations don't go anywhere.

Final eliminator: Whyte v Rivas
Whyte wins
WBC puts his title shot against Wilder on hold based off media reports of a failed drug test. He is cleared. Yada yada.
Whyte is mandatory

2020
Wilder v Fury 2 > Fury is now champion
Whyte loses to Povetkin
Povetkin is mandatory
2021
Fury v Wilder 3
Whyte beats Povetkin
Whyte is mandatory
2022
Fury v Whyte

5.5 years from Whyte winning the initial WBC title eliminator to actually getting a title shot. Not at Wilder, but at Fury. Imho, Wilder/PBC wanted nothing to do with Whyte.


I wonder how long Kabayel will have to wait.

 

I can definitely see where you are coming from. Though, I would guess Hearn is trying to spin things based on how Holyfield is held up as a four-time champion.

But actually, I am happy for Fury v Joshua to just fight each other because it will hopefully mean other (younger) challengers finally get a shot at a title. Since Usyk because champion he has fought 3 different men, all from Britain, and it's getting boring.

Personally, I think it's great that Usyk dropped the IBF strap. I really don't need to see the same guys walk into:
Usyk v Joshua 3
or
Usyk v Dubois 2

 

Well, Wilder and Finkel said the DAZN deal was legit but didn't want to take it. Wilder also said he was offered more money to fight AJ but chose to fight Fury. Straight from the duckers mouths (or keyboards, lol).

Lennox beats any heavyweight on the planet today and maybe ever. He's a H2H beast.

 

He was great, we def agree on that . My favourite boxer growing up.

 

For the record I don’t question the DAZN deal that Wilder was offered and agree it was legitimate. They were chucking money around back then. Mikey Garcia 10 million for a fight etc. madness. No wonder he is enjoying his retirement now and fair play to him, it’s just a shame we never saw him box prime Loma.

 

No doubt about it.