No one wanted to fight Ortiz. People may say he is old now that Wilder beat him, but before that fight no heavyweights were lining up to fight him. Wilder stepped up when he didn't have to - and for a sh*tload less than a Joshua offer - and defeated Ortiz. That tells me all I need to know about Deontay Wilder. He wouldn't duck anyone. The bloke has devastating power and has no reason to fear Anthony Joshua - who on the other hand appears to fear a Wilder fight. The prospect of getting brutally KO'd has most likely got Joshua looking elsewhere. That is my take on it. I suspect it was easy for Hearn to nudge an already hesitant and fearful Anthony Joshua in another direction.
Its hard to tell. I dont believe either Boxer themselves is ducking but at the end of the day a number of contracts have been sent from the UK to the USA and the UK side seem to of been much more prompt with regards to questions, answers and paperwork and the other has taken its sweet time at every stage whislt fully aware that the WBA have been breathing down Eddie Hearns neck. Its been so complicated, so much info and false info passed around, but when i stand back thats what i see, paperwork, contracts and dialouge that all seems to be going one way.
Ustinov wanted to fight Ortiz, but Ortiz ducked out not once but twice. Jennings happily took the fight too. The whole idea that Ortiz is avoided because he is feared is just smoke and mirrors. If he was so avoided why did the biggest cherry picker at heavyweight in Wilder fight him? Answer nobody really was ducking him, they just saw a fighter who brought little financial reward, had built a reputation of being difficult to deal with pulling twice out of the Ustinov fight, breaking his contract with Goldenboy etc and always had better options than Ortiz. Strange how Ortiz refused to sign a contract with Hearn only agreeing a fight by fight basis deal. Yet was happy to do just this to secure the Wilder fight. Why was it so easy to sign with Haymon but so difficult to sign with Hearn to secure a title shot? He signed with Haymon in March just before the Wlad fight and nobody would of wanted Joshua/Ortiz over Joshua/Wlad and prior to that Joshua fought 2 Haymon fighters as part of the options Haymon got on Joshua after the Martin fight. So Joshua could never have fought Ortiz before then unless he refused to fight Wlad and fought Ortiz instead. Ortiz/Wilder begun negotiating in July a month before Ortiz was named Joshua's mandatory, so clearly by then Ortiz wasn't looking to fight Joshua but Wilder instead as he was negotiating with Wilder. By then Ortiz had no interest in being Joshua's mandatory, he'd secured an easier path to the title.
I don't know if I call it ducking. They are testing the waters on what the fight is worth. They will fight eventually. If I were either guy, I would not be looking forward to fighting the other guy.
There's been a lot of BS written about both fighters surrounding these negotiations but some things have become clear. 1 - Neither side wanted the fight next. Wilder's offer was for after Sept 2018 so he could easily fit an interim fight with Breazeale. Hearn always wanted an interim fight too, ideally with Miller in the US but Povetkin mandatory scuppered that idea, but Hearn still wanted the fight in late 2018 or early 2019 so Joshua could fight in an interim fight. 2 - Joshua/Hearn do not want the fight in the US no matter how much money is on offer. They want hometown advantage. 3 - Joshua is the A-side and is pushing that leverage he has hard to stack the deck against Wilder. They see Wilder as a threat and are not willing to take any unnecessary risks. 4 - Wilder was willing to accept a flat fee of $15 mill so all the talk of 50/50 now is BS, we know he'll accept less, question is how much less. 5 - Only contract that was ever on the table to be signed was from Joshua/Hearn. All Wilder had to do was sign it and he didn't. He had everything he wanted in this contract but the date and venue confirmed and even once given this information didn't want it in April 2019 for whatever reason that was it seemed to be a deal breaker. Maybe all this BS is just the way they are building the fight, the cynic in me thinks this could be the case. But a part of me also thinks Wilder doesn't want the fight or at least he changed his mind and now thinks he can get more and delayed the fight to try and get more when they begin negotiations again. I think Joshua/Hearn want the fight, they've been building to this for a long time and never shied away from the idea this was the big fight for Joshua to become undisputed. But they do want to do this fight on their terms and won't be pushed around in negotiations. That might kill the fight for a while but they are in no real urgency to do a deal when they are raking in 1 mill plus PPV buys with every Joshua fight.
Both ducking each other. On paper, it looks more like Joshua is. But only slightly and only on paper. It's both of them. Plenty of milking left to do.
