I’ll fight Joshua in UK but he’ll have to accept $20m pay cut

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I’ll fight Joshua in UK but he’ll have to accept $20m pay cut — Wilder

By Daily Sports on May 28, 2018

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) says he’s willing to give IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) by fighting him in the UK for their first of two fights, but his $50 million guaranteed purse will be slashed by $20 million to $30 million.

Joshua’s decision not to leave his home country of the UK for the first fight will cost him $20million. That’s obviously not a great move for a fighter who wants to become the first $1billion fighter. Losing $20 million based on fear is a wrong-headed move, and it suggests that Joshua may never even get close to making $1 billion if he’s going to avoid putting himself at risk.

”We offered $50 million with $50 million up front,” Wilder said to Fighthub. ”He would have been the first fighter ever to get $50 million up front. It would have been an easy thing coming to America. It was going to be crazy. If he’s willing to take a $20 million cut in pay for me to go to his country to fight, then so be it. If we have it here, it’ll be in September,” Wilder said.

It’s predictable how Joshua will react when he hears that his guaranteed offer of $50 million is slashed to $30 million because of his stubbornness and unwillingness to fight in the U.S. Joshua will surely reject the $30 million reduced offer for the Wilder fight. I mean, if Joshua will willing to walk away from a guaranteed $50 million to fight in the U.S, he’ll likely do the same thing if he sees his money chopped nearly in half because of his unyielding mindset. The thing is, Joshua isn’t going to make $30 million fighting anyone else, so he’ll be shooting himself in the foot by electing not to take the $30 million. If Joshua continues to make decisions like this, then he’s going to be shooting himself in the foot left and right his entire career. He’s got to grow up and realise sometimes you can’t get everything slanted in your favour. Joshua has had things in his favor since he fought in the 2012 Olympics, which was staged in London, England. After appearing to lose three of his four fights in the Olympics, Joshua was given a gold medal. It looked to many fans as home cooking to the extreme. Since then, Joshua has never level the UK to fight. It’s always been fights at home for Joshua. In Joshua’s last fight against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, the referee working the contest spent the entire fight pulling Parker off of Joshua when he was trying to fight him on the inside. Wilder saw the fight and he says the referee was clearly helping Joshua.

”The referee helped him out,” Wilder said about the referee appearing to help Joshua in his recent fight against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker by preventing the New Zealand fighter from working on the inside. ”It was Batman [Joshua] and Robin [the referee] in the ring. Personally, I thought Parker won. Of course, Joshua is in his country and the biggest fight in the world is between me and him. It’s coming soon, baby. Be ready for the biggest fight of your lives,” Wilder said.

•Sourced from boxingnews24.com. Photo shows Wilder

Source Daily Sports

Posted May 28, 2018