Everyone knows Wilder was angling for a superbout against Anthony Joshua yet turned down career high purses to face AJ. It seems highly doubtful that he can beat Fury in a return fight, especially if it is in the UK. Does his rejection of the offers from AJ`s camp now look like a massive blunder?
Yes but then I also genuinely believe Wilder believed, as did most people (including myself,) that he was going to beat Fury and what's more, that it would be something of a walk in the park too. Wilder's power is legitimate but fighting mostly lesser competition until very recently undoubtedly led to him becoming overly confident in his ability to KO ANY opponent. You could see it in his face when Fury got up of the canvas that Wilder's confidence in his power had been broken for the first time. So, whilst he will still remain a dangerous opponent, his self belief may have already begun to dwindle. In other words, he NEEDS to KO Fury in the rematch, otherwise his career is going to take a serious nosedive which he may not be able to recover from.
Certainly his talk of wanting 50/50 was just a way of putting the fight off as even Wilder isn’t that stupid to think he’s worth that surely? That said it could be a great move as Hearn and AJ seem desperate to secure this fight now due to fan pressure and it may be that they have to throw logic out of the window here and pay Wilder more than they wanted to.
Why would it be “highly doubtful”? What is different about it being in the UK, do you expect it to be rigged for Fury?
Interesting thought, I don't think it will stop him from believing in his power against other opponents but he might lose confidence against Fury. Who knows but that is what makes the rematch much more interesting
As of today it would hard to argue that Wilder is worth more than 40% of the AJ purse. I don't think the Fury fight improved his situation vs AJ. I don't think it put him in a worse position either. He is clearly a bigger draw than other AJ opponents like Parker. He still isn't that close to AJ though. If the Fury 2 fight does the numbers I'm expecting (1mill+) Wilder will legitimately be A side. 750k-1mill and its 50/50 under 500k and Wilder doesn't improve
Wilder’s value now is more than a week ago and he’ll earn more in a Fury rematch than whatever fake offer Hearn came up with last summer. If he beats Fury, he’ll earn an even larger cut if Joshua finds the balls to face him. And he also pulled down eight figures against Fury. I would say everything is working out well for him.
No. Wilder was willing to take the $15 million offer with no PPV percentage for a fight with Joshua even against Finkel’s advice. Hearn was greedy, since he also wanted exclusive options on Wilder for Wilder’s next 3-5 fights, which eventually resulted in Wilder ending any further negotiations with Hearn. In the end it worked out for the best, since the fans got to see Wilder-Fury and will most likely also get to see a rematch, so one way or another Wilder will still end up making the money.
Not at all, it was a great move. He gets two very good paydays against Fury. Each one probably at least 75% of what Hearn would have given him. If he beats Fury next, and it increases its financial take, he is very much on pace to get at least 45% against AJ in what will be a much bigger base purse, because the fight will have been built up so appropriately. Worst case, he loses to Fury. Demand will still be there to face AJ, and some of the tricky negotiating problems (i.e. respect due him because of his belt etc) are removed. 25-28% probably gets the deal done. That fight would still sell a ton in the UK and it would probably bank him close to 10 mil. So, let's assume he was always going to lose to AJ. If he just accepted AJ's 15 mil offer, he cashes out and loses his belt/leverage for future high paid performances. He probably would have taken some time off after a loss, maybe fights a high profile American for about a million dollar purse a year later, then another comparable purse 6 months after that. So, in the span of time it will take him to got through two Fury fights and an AJ fight, he's looking at making 20-30 mil total from fighting Fury, and then another 10-25 mil against AJ (depending on a lot of different factors, most prominently how he does against Fury in part II). So, conservatively he makes 30 million in a three fight span this way. Maybe as much as 55 mil. Alternately, again, assuming he loses to AJ, he gets maybe 17 million over the same time span? The only way this winds up costing him money, is if he was always going to beat AJ. If he beats AJ, then yeah, he would have inherited a lot of AJ's financial status, and would be making a lot more money. But if he winds up losing to AJ, which is what most people around here think will happen, this way makes him VASTLY more money and its not really debatable.
