People don’t want him to fight anyone who’s name isn’t Wilder or Fury. There’s no getting away from that.
If Wilder-AJ doesn’t happen, then it will be Wilder-Fury II. Joshua out in the cold again. People act like Joshua has options outside of Fury and Wilder. He really doesn’t. The casuals are demanding Wilder or Fury. Boxing fans would like to see Usyk as well, maybe a few others. But let’s not act like it isn’t damaging to Joshua’s brand if he doesn’t fight Wilder or Fury now. If Usyk UDs Joshua the damage to Joshua’s brand would be massive.
The problem with the old 'we make more together than we do apart' line is that the percentage is usually based on what they make independent of each other. As others are correctly pointing out Joshua isn't as high as he is in sporting rich lists, (whilst Wilder and Fury are conspicuous by their absence) because of viral fights trending on Twitter. He's on there because he sells more tickets, more advertising, more PPV's, more everything. It's easy to see what happens if they don't agree: Joshua heads back to the UK and sells out Wembley against Whyte or Usyk or Pulev earning himself somewhere in the region of £20m. Wilder shifts about 12k tickets and no PPV's against Ortiz in New York and earns about a third of what Joshua does. Thus further cementing the fact that despite that American market having so much potential, he isn't exploiting it.
People are losing interest in boxthing because of all this bull making money an excuse for not fighting each other. The fookers already possess millions and millions of pounds yet simply cannot get enough wonga. Is there no end to this greed?
And if none of them fight each other who do you think emerges with more money after the following: Joshua v Whyte/Usyk/Pulev Wilder v Ortiz II Fury v Schwarz Hint: it's not a hard question.
Said it before, I'll say it again. The only people with the power to really force these fights is the fans by not paying for tickets or TV sales of the fights we don't want. No hyping up on Twitter, no nothing. If they see their profits dropping when fighting undesirable fights then the desirable will happen more frequently. The market controls the fighters and it's about time we started controlling the market. Look at the responses online to the Smith-N'Dam announcement, The Ruiz announcement, Fury's and Saunder's fight etc...even the loyal casual market is starting to get fed up. Attitude change normally presupposes change of action and that's exactly what we need BRB - changing my username to Karl Marx.
In 20 years time, Tony, when people look back at this era of heavyweight boxing, I really doubt whether the legacy Fury, Joshua and Wilder leave behind will be measured by how much money they made. I reckon about 99% of boxing fans don’t care about how much money these lads make. I know I don’t. Oh, and don’t forget, Wilder and Fury have already fought each other. Time for Joshua to do the same...he might make a bit of decent wedge from the Pulev’s & Whyte’s but people want legacy fights. This thread has gone so far off the original point...I just said I believe Hearn has hindered rather than facilitated a fight between AJ and Wilder.
We both know the answer to the question I made was Joshua. And therein lies the problem. If they never fight, Joshua will blame Wilder and you have to assume Wilder will blame Joshua. Will it harm their legacies? Quite possibly, but does anyone sit around today seriously criticising Lennox Lewis because he never fought Riddick Bowe? As others have said, one party appears to be trying to make the fight, and the other doesn't. Wilder is already running short on time. What's it now? 42 fights? Never fought Klitschko, hasn't fought Povetkin, hasn't fought Joshua, hasn't beaten Fury. Hard to hang a legacy on beating a pensioner with a bad back.
Quite a few people continue to discuss the Lewis and Bowe stalemate to this day Its often bought up when im with people that watch boxing on a regular
I think it applies to all 3 of them to be honest. None of them have options outside of one another. Is anyone happy with Fury fighting Schwarz and Wilder Breazeale? The only fights anyone wants to see them 3 in are against each other.
Who do you think comes out of it looking worse? I think it's Bowe. He's never really considered among the all time true greats, whereas Lewis is. For me, Wilder needs the Joshua fight more than Joshua needs it. I base that on Joshua probably looking likely to have a better record in the long term, (he's got more time left, has already beaten one great fighter, whereas Wilder probably hasn't and most people are very confident that he lost the Fury fight.) Also, if two fighters never fight, the debate inevitably switches to who would have probably won, and I think most people reckon it would be Joshua. A bit like Calzaghe Froch; the latter unquestionably fought better opposition, but most just think Joe would have been too much for him so rank Calzaghe higher. This isn't to say Wilder couldn't or wouldn't beat him. But Joshua feels like a fighter who has time. If, and it's a very big if, he goes on to someday beat Usyk, Fury and a couple of Dubois type contenders who emerge into the big time before he retires, then I think Wilder sort of becomes his version of what Bowe is to Lewis.
I agree Bowe is often looked as as to why the fights never happened The same will most probably be said of Wilder in years to come Its all nonsense anyway Id usually switch my focus to some kind of middleweight divison But the same crap is going on there
Let’s not forget that Wilder was signed to fight Povetkin in Russia. That wasn’t his fault it didn’t happen. He fought Fury...the issue isn’t whether he won, lost or drew, it’s that they took the fight and it will be talked about for many generations. Many believed that pensioner was one of the best heavyweights in the world and nobody had the balls to fight him, until Wilder did. Whyte wouldn’t go near him and Joshua really wanted to fight him on June 1st so what’s good enough for AJ...
But if we are talking legacy here, nobody gets rated on signing for fights which never happened. The record books at present show that in an era when the dominant heavyweights were Klitschko, Joshua and Fury, and in the second tier to those you have Povetkin, Whyte and Haye, Wilder is 41-0-1 and hasn't beaten any of them. (To add before it gets picked up, Wilder was 22-0 when Haye fought Chisora. Although their careers feel quite separate, 22-0 and a pro for nearly four years isn't necessarily some raw beginner.)
Agreed but Wilder and Fury will fight again before either boxes Joshua. Joshua out in the cold as I said. I 100% believe Arum and Warren that after a couple of interim fights the rematch will happen.
