WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder 40-0 (39) insists he is prepared to travel to Great Britain to face unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 21-0 (20) but says that it will cost the popular Brit 40% of his purse.
Earlier this year Wilder’s team offered the 28-year-old a purse of $50 million to come to the United States to unify his IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO titles with the American’s WBC strap.
But Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing have dug their heels in, insisting that the fight takes place on British soil. It’s not hard to understand why; for his last three fights, Joshua has averaged crowds of 80,000 people.
“We offered $50 million, with $50 million up front,” said Wilder in an interview with Fighthub. “He would have been the first fighter to ever 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 in England it will be in September, if it’s here in America it will be November.”
Hearn, who recently signed an eight-year $1 billion deal with streaming service DAZN that calls for 16 fight cards per year in the USA and another 16 in the UK, is cashed-up and looking to sign a bunch of established boxers to provide the talent to fill his shows. It is an ambitious plan but Wilder questions the numbers that are being thrown around in the media.
“It’s not a $1 billion deal,” insisted Wilder. “It’s over a period of time, which I think he’s going to have a very hard time signing American fighters because of the character of their actions [Matchroom Boxing] in dealing with me. They’ve done a lot of lying, they’ve manipulated people and they’ve contradicted themselves.”
The 32-year-old Wilder’s name has been bandied about as a possible signing, but the 6-foot-7 Tuscaloosa, Alabama heavyweight isn’t coming to the party. He insists he doesn’t need to be tied to a promoter to further his career.
“Not at all, I don’t need to sign with no-one,” he said. “I’m about to do my own thing anyway. I don’t need to sign with anyone.”
Wilder it seems is prepared to play the long game with Hearn and Joshua.
“The fight will happen,” said Wilder. “If they still serious, we been serious this whole way through. Joshua said he wanted $50 million and he’ll sign tomorrow. We did exactly what he said and he didn’t sign, so I think that shows you his character already, or his team’s character.
“I think Joshua wants to fight, but I don’t think his team wants to risk what they’ve invested. Their investment is about to go and they know it.”
 insists he is prepared to travel to Great Britain to face unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 21-0 (20) but says that it will cost the popular Brit 40% of his purse.){kind=link}