Wilder's strategy and why Hearn/AJ were avoiding him

Most of my threads and posts have had nothing to do with Wilder. But he is criminally underrated on these forums and I like redressing the balance.

I've already refuted the idea that either Ortiz or Wilder ducked AJ in the thread, either read the prior responses or f*ck off.

"Even if this was true that Hearn/AJ wanted 70-30"

By his own admission, Hearn made offers to Wilder that included 70-30 splits, one-way rematch clauses and that guaranteed AJ home advantage. Don't try to pretend that it was a level playing field and that Wilder was going to be paid $100 million to fight AJ with no strings attached. AJ said that he wouldn't fight Wilder in America, neither of them showed much willingness to travel during their careers and the first time AJ did against a 25-1 underdog, he got smashed up and quit. If you lack heart in the ring and carry a suspect chin, you're more likely to duck arguably the biggest puncher in boxing history than he is to duck you, especially when he's willing to die in the ring. Use a bit of common sense.

Wilder opted to fight Fury because beating the undefeated lineal champion would strengthen his hand in the AJ negotiations and get him a 50-50 split (vastly increasing his payday in what was potentially the biggest earing of his career by far) with generally more favourable terms. AJ then lost to Ruiz and the rest is history. It made sense to avoid Wilder while picking up the other belts from Martin, Wlad and Parker because these were lower risk fights, while also being highly lucrative and served to increase AJ's experience and profile while aging the older Wilder out. Barring Povetkin, none of the mandatories were dangerous, they were just time-wasting excuses. Everyone was looking to unify with AJ not Wilder because AJ was the cash cow, had more belts post-Martin and offered the most interest, with a highly lucrative rematch another reward if they beat him, while Wilder was just as dangerous for far less reward.

There are reasonable critiques that can be made of Wilder but few people are even-handed about it. For example, Wilder generally fought lower quality opposition than AJ pre-2018 but since 2018 he's fought stronger and more dangerous competition on average. Plus Wilder turned pro on 3 years of boxing experience rather than AJ's 6 and at 23 rather than AJ's 24. And AJ being rushed to world level was partly why he got destroyed by Ruiz and lost his confidence.

 

What were the conditions for this alleged $100 million offer? Was it a 50-50 split? Was there a two way rematch clause? Was it in Britain, America or neutral territory?

Had Wilder beaten Fury then whatever Hearn/AJ were offering him in by far the most lucrative fight of his career would have increased, while it made no sense to fight the most dangerous opponent when you could collect most of the belts from puddings like Martin and Parker and a 41 year old, 17 months inactive Wlad, fight a bunch of highly lucrative but low risk mandatories and mutual Wilder opponents and age the older, more experienced Wilder out, while attempting to setup a Wilder-Whyte fight to monopolise the belts and cut Wilder out altogether.

It's ironic that you accuse Wilder of cherrypicking Fury when it was an almost even money fight on both occasions (before Wilder was a big underdog in the trilogy) while even the Wlad fight (AJ's closest odds fight) had AJ as a solid favourite. Since 2018, Wilder has fought the strongest competition in boxing. Yes he believed he would win against Ortiz x2 and Fury x3, all top fighters believe in themselves but he was taking considerable risks regardless. Fury wasn't a mandatory like Usyk (who Hearn/AJ had sidestepped for years) Wilder fought the No.1 HW in the division three times by choice. Yet he gets no credit because he believed he would win!

Wilder has recently talked about retirement and I don't blame him; he sustained massive beatdowns in his last two fights with the 6'9, 270 lbs HW champ and never even thought about quitting. But I'm sure he can make one last fight to KO fat Andy.

 

Fury is the GOAT so no shame in that, especially since Wilder came closest to beating him with the near-KO draw.

But you're a moron so you don't think that 3 victories over top 6 Ring ranked heavyweights and 10 consecutive title defences over 5 years means anything. It's amazing how Tyson, Lewis, Wlad and AJ get credit for losing to 5-1 and 25-1 stiffs but Wilder is criticised for beating them!

 

The terms are the deal are not "irrelevant", that's a bizarre statement. Neither showed much willingness to travel and Hearn wasn't willing to offer 50-50, as he said many times. He also wanted a one-way rematch clause, as we've seen time and time again from Matchroom when their fighters have lost. The incentive to make the fight wasn't there in the short term on Hearn/AJ's side as they'd have a better chance of beating Wilder when he was older and when AJ was more experienced. No point in taking a dangerous fight when you can sell out Wembley against a dog in the road.

Fury opened as a +110, Wilder as a -150 and the odds stayed within this area. American pundits were picking Wilder for both fights, most British pundits (with the notable exception of David Haye) were picking Fury. It was much the same for the rematch. Fury was regarded as a very live underdog, the question was how close he would be to the Fury who beat Wlad and if it was a similar Fury, he was expected to win. Wilder had also only fought one mover thus far and it was C level southpaw blown up cruiserweight Szpilka, who was virtually giving as good as he got in terms of punches landed after 8 rounds before getting brutally KO'd. People didn't understand Wilder's style, so they regarded this as a poor performance and thus would give a much better mover like Fury a good chance even if semi-fit and rusty.

Before Wilder-Fury 2 was signed, AJ had lost to Ruiz and Fury was No.1. Before Fury-Wilder 3 which Wilder again didn't have to take, Fury was No.1. AJ was generally regarded as the best heavyweight in 2018 but Fury was still the man who beat the man and regarded as the 3rd man in the division. The "top 10 heavyweights" that AJ fought were largely no-hopers if they odds are to be believed: AJ has never been close to even odds in his career, Wilder has on three occasions and has also been a wide underdog.

The Wlad who got taken out by Puritty, Sanders or Brewster probably loses to prime Wilder. The Peter Wlad was very shaky too. Early-mid and mid-late 30's Wlad was a much better fighter and would beat Wilder more often than not. But Wilder has plenty of advantages and would be in with a significant chance of landing a bomb with his greater height, reach, speed and unorthodox style. He's also very tenacious and can take a massive beating before succumbing. Wilder is a more dangerous fighter than anyone Wlad ever beat.