Comments Thread For: Tyson Fury: Joshua Will Not Fight Deontay Wilder at Any Cost

1) none of this explains why Wilder is the “man to beat.” Just because fighters have chosen different paths, does not male Wilder number 1 in this division. That's sort of the way it works. Wilder was the only remaining champion when Fury was stripped and Wilder has yet to be beaten. So he has remained number 1 in the division, the de facto champion, i.e. "the man to beat". There's a REASON why every other belt holder (including Joshua) has avoided Wilder to grab one of Fury's belts. And I don't blame them: how do you beat a fighter like Wilder? Joshua says if you really want to find out, YOU go fight him!!! I agree that Wilder being the "man to beat" still doesn't make him the "best" in the division. But I have a hunch Joshua, Martin and Parker believe he is... 2) I agree that HE thinks he’s not ready for Wilder, but I think he’s overestimating the man who will lose to the first young and fast opponent he faces. Ortiz is a cracking fighter but he lacks mobility and power. Never expected him to have enough to beat Wilder purely because of the latter’s physical advantages but they only take you so far.. I believe Wilder beats Joshua because of his confidence, quickness, and unorthodox style. But we'll never know until Joshua is ready to step up.

Remember that Wilder and Klitschko were both managed by Shelly Finkel so they were purposely kept apart until Wilder challenged for the WBC belt and had a few more fights under his belt. Similar to Joshua now, it was felt that unification was too soon for Wilder (fewer amateur bouts, more fights needed to hone skills and gain popularity). Klitschko was the man to beat until Fury schooled him. But if you noticed, Fury didn't really beat him senseless: he sort of avoided fighting him and threw slapping punches, never really committing with serious leverage but racking up points and being evasive while staying in the pocket. Classic boxing finesse... Unfortunately Fury couldn't keep it together and reneged on two rematch attempts, thereby giving up the titles. All the while, keeping Wilder out of the loop for the next two years, but still finding the time to attend Wilder's fights. Once Fury was out of the picture, Wilder became the man to beat. But Fury never lost the lineal title, so he will be a force to be reckoned with once he is back to his previous form. Should be two more fights... After Joshua beat Dillian Whyte in a great fight, he was required to register with the VADA clean boxing program and became the WBC mandatory for Wilder. But similar to Wilder's diversion from Klischko, Joshua chose a different path and fought a great fight with Klitschko. Klitschko NEVER fought better and Joshua showed the heart of a lion. That uppercut in the final round was a punch for the ages, perfectly timed... Charles Martin also chose a different path. Instead of unifying with Wilder for less money, he was paid handsomely to defend against Joshua. Ditto for Parker. Paid another nice 30% to unify with Joshua. But I suspect the Takam and Parker fights revealed something to Joshua. He expected devastating results but they were tougher than expected. So he realized he needs to hone his skills some more. Very different for Wilder... His confidence is off the charts right now, especially after the Ortiz fight. THAT fight revealed something about Wilder. He's faster than most heavyweights (because he's lighter), so he can avoid incoming but is lightning quick if you make a mistake. But that's not what makes him lethal: it's his commitment to his punches. He literally punches to take your head off, committing with full leverage when he has you hurt, and is fast enough to retreat if he misses. You can't be unsure of yourself if you fight him now and you better have a solid defense if you miss. I believe Joshua CAN beat him, but Joshua doesn't believe he can beat him. Not yet anyway, and that's ok, but don't pretend he's ready to fight him right now. Even Joshua said he won't be forced to fight him and not even $50 million against 50% can change his mind. Hopefully, they're both still in their primes when they do fight (late next year, early 2020?) and my hope is that they take each other to the next level. If not, Fury-Wilder is just as compelling. You know what? Great post, very good points all round. Except for 2 things: 1) none of this explains why Wilder is the “man to beat.” Just because fighters have chosen different paths, does not male Wilder number 1 in this division. 2) I agree that HE thinks he’s not ready for Wilder, but I think he’s overestimating the man who will lose to the first young and fast opponent he faces. Ortiz is a cracking fighter but he lacks mobility and power. Never expected him to have enough to beat Wilder purely because of the latter’s physical advantages but they only take you so far..

actually the comments from parkers financial guys seem to fishy......since he is fighting on his 2nd hearn card in a row it would see beneficial of them to say something nice about hearn given his recent run of bad pub from parker, parkers trainer, fury and lennox.....almost seems like eddie egged parkers promoter on to say something nice about eddie/bad about wilder because the general consensus, even from AJs countrymen and parker, is that AJs side is the one ducking and to blame....it seems to be the general consensus in boxing circles around the world if you excluse AJs over the top internet fanboys making AJ/parker is easy because of the economics and geography.....I don't think parker was that interested in coming over to the states for a fight for low money to get his title taken.....and look what hearn did? he got parker another decent payday off of that even tho he lost I doubt dibella could ease the blow of losing to wilder by offering another decent payday behind it and who else in their right mind is paying Charles martin 6 mil to fight? lol....hearn overpaid to get a belt..... the wbo belt, for all intents and purposes, is basically a euro/uk title wilder still holds the most prestigious and is really the only one he needs for an American champion......AJs side simply has the economic ability to make the fights.......given that Joshua is a bigger draw in his country than wilder is in his.....hearn can dump 6 mil to martin where wilders side prob couldn't even assure him 2.5 mil 1) So your assumption (because that’s what it is) is that David Higgins was influenced to denigrate Wilder because he’s working with Eddie Hearn but Parker, his trainer, Barry and Fury are just telling the truth and definitely not trying to ingratiate themselves with Wilder and his team? Get my point? I have no proof that this unsubstantiated assertion of mine is correct but at least I state as opinion and remain consistent in such. You have stated conspiracy theory as fact. Poor. 2) AJ’s side have the economic ability to make fights because they and he have earned the right to do so but taking on challenges that Wilder wouldn’t.

Whose gonna give you that 20k venue? I don't understand your question

Tyson Fury is not alone in his assessment. Carl Froch basically said the same thing several hours ago. He virtually threw Eddie Hearn under the bus by saying that he deliberately postponed the fight in order to protect AJ :lol1:

Is it not amusing that boxers and promoters make more money off a 20k venue in U.S. than a 90k stadium in Europe? We can leave it at that if you'd like. Whose gonna give you that 20k venue?

well, it's just alarming and amusing that a live gate of 12k is considered a sell out considering over 350mil people. It is what it is. Let's leave it just the way it is. Is it not amusing that boxers and promoters make more money off a 20k venue in U.S. than a 90k stadium in Europe? We can leave it at that if you'd like.

I’m sorry, did I read that correctly? You think Wilder has been “avoided like the plague?” You also think only “the toughest” want to fight him? I’m sure that Audley Harrison, Eric Molina, Stiverne, Washington, Splizika have fought him. Also quite sure that Klitschko, Povetkin, Parker, Whyte, Breazeale and now AJ have all tried to fight him. Hardly being avoided. What a ludicrous statement. Yet, you haven’t actually explained how he is the man to beat, just offered spurious statements that don’t even make a feeble attempt to support your claims and here I am wondering if critical thinking is part of the American education system.. Remember that Wilder and Klitschko were both managed by Shelly Finkel so they were purposely kept apart until Wilder challenged for the WBC belt and had a few more fights under his belt. Similar to Joshua now, it was felt that unification was too soon for Wilder (fewer amateur bouts, more fights needed to hone skills and gain popularity). Klitschko was the man to beat until Fury schooled him. But if you noticed, Fury didn't really beat him senseless: he sort of avoided fighting him and threw slapping punches, never really committing with serious leverage but racking up points and being evasive while staying in the pocket. Classic boxing finesse... Unfortunately Fury couldn't keep it together and reneged on two rematch attempts, thereby giving up the titles. All the while, keeping Wilder out of the loop for the next two years, but still finding the time to attend Wilder's fights. Once Fury was out of the picture, Wilder became the man to beat. But Fury never lost the lineal title, so he will be a force to be reckoned with once he is back to his previous form. Should be two more fights... After Joshua beat Dillian Whyte in a great fight, he was required to register with the VADA clean boxing program and became the WBC mandatory for Wilder. But similar to Wilder's diversion from Klischko, Joshua chose a different path and fought a great fight with Klitschko. Klitschko NEVER fought better and Joshua showed the heart of a lion. That uppercut in the final round was a punch for the ages, perfectly timed... Charles Martin also chose a different path. Instead of unifying with Wilder for less money, he was paid handsomely to defend against Joshua. Ditto for Parker. Paid another nice 30% to unify with Joshua. But I suspect the Takam and Parker fights revealed something to Joshua. He expected devastating results but they were tougher than expected. So he realized he needs to hone his skills some more. Very different for Wilder... His confidence is off the charts right now, especially after the Ortiz fight. THAT fight revealed something about Wilder. He's faster than most heavyweights (because he's lighter), so he can avoid incoming but is lightning quick if you make a mistake. But that's not what makes him lethal: it's his commitment to his punches. He literally punches to take your head off, committing with full leverage when he has you hurt, and is fast enough to retreat if he misses. You can't be unsure of yourself if you fight him now and you better have a solid defense if you miss. I believe Joshua CAN beat him, but Joshua doesn't believe he can beat him. Not yet anyway, and that's ok, but don't pretend he's ready to fight him right now. Even Joshua said he won't be forced to fight him and not even $50 million against 50% can change his mind. Hopefully, they're both still in their primes when they do fight (late next year, early 2020?) and my hope is that they take each other to the next level. If not, Fury-Wilder is just as compelling.

Well you’ve answered 2 of my points. I had forgotten about the Whyte situation so I can concede on that one. Still doesn’t explain why Klitschko (someone wilder ducked) was ok to sign a fight before AJ-Molina (months in advance) but Wilder won’t sign now despite similar conditions. Smells fishy.. Also, Wilder’s team didn’t say anything because the contract was for April, but he couldn’t have come out a lot earlier to say “NO HOMBRE?” They had the contract for weeks and didn’t sign and didn’t even respond. Poor, in fact so poor it’s inexcusable and smacks of not being serious about negotiating.. Also you didn’t tell me why Wilder couldn’t have fought the guys AJ has for the 3 belts. Of course their respective resumes will be irrelevant when they fight. But in the meantime, it says AJ has fought OR at least has attempted to fight a better class of opponent than Wilder ever has - at least in the eyes of ‘independent’ adjudicators such as Ring magazine rankings - and he’s fought more of them. Which really ridicules this idea that AJ is a ducking coward. You and others continue to quote Lennox, Fury (lol) and Parker as “reasonable” commentators on the matter. Just wondering if Parker’s promoters comments about Wilder’s team’s behaviour are now going to be enshrined as truth since his team knows so much? actually the comments from parkers financial guys seem to fishy......since he is fighting on his 2nd hearn card in a row it would see beneficial of them to say something nice about hearn given his recent run of bad pub from parker, parkers trainer, fury and lennox.....almost seems like eddie egged parkers promoter on to say something nice about eddie/bad about wilder because the general consensus, even from AJs countrymen and parker, is that AJs side is the one ducking and to blame....it seems to be the general consensus in boxing circles around the world if you excluse AJs over the top internet fanboys making AJ/parker is easy because of the economics and geography.....I don't think parker was that interested in coming over to the states for a fight for low money to get his title taken.....and look what hearn did? he got parker another decent payday off of that even tho he lost I doubt dibella could ease the blow of losing to wilder by offering another decent payday behind it and who else in their right mind is paying Charles martin 6 mil to fight? lol....hearn overpaid to get a belt..... the wbo belt, for all intents and purposes, is basically a euro/uk title wilder still holds the most prestigious and is really the only one he needs for an American champion......AJs side simply has the economic ability to make the fights.......given that Joshua is a bigger draw in his country than wilder is in his.....hearn can dump 6 mil to martin where wilders side prob couldn't even assure him 2.5 mil

You keep talking about the resume, but don't seem to realize that's it's very easy to avoid the best fighters in boxing, then turn around and claim that their resume sucks. Wilder is the real deal, and is most dangerous threat in the heavyweight division. High risk, low reward, so avoided like the plague by most fighters. Only the toughest fighters fight him. Or the most confident... From my vantage point, Joshua never intended to fight Wilder next and continues to avoid him with a disrespectful flat-fee offer. Like Fury says, not even $50 million against 50% was enough for him to take the chance. Hopefully, after one or two confidence-building fights, Joshua will be ready. Until then, Wilder is the man to beat... I’m sorry, did I read that correctly? You think Wilder has been “avoided like the plague?” You also think only “the toughest” want to fight him? I’m sure that Audley Harrison, Eric Molina, Stiverne, Washington, Splizika have fought him. Also quite sure that Klitschko, Povetkin, Parker, Whyte, Breazeale and now AJ have all tried to fight him. Hardly being avoided. What a ludicrous statement. Yet, you haven’t actually explained how he is the man to beat, just offered spurious statements that don’t even make a feeble attempt to support your claims and here I am wondering if critical thinking is part of the American education system..

wilder told hearn months ago he'd fight whyte....if he promised him the AJ fight would be next....this is documented...and hearn said "it dont work like that" which is funny cause it happened later again when hearn sent a contract with no date or venue and when wilder asked when it would be they said april...thats why he didnt sign anything......because it would be silly of him to sign something now when his position could be better by the end of the year with demand for the fight building the proof is in the pudding...fury, lennox and parker(who is fighting on hearn card again next) all have said what reasonable people know...aj is ducking you can talk about measuring on what we have now...and whos resume is better...and all of it will mean jack **** when they meet...and dont worry that day is coming soon....aj wont be able to hide forever....the media and boxing world wont let him Well you’ve answered 2 of my points. I had forgotten about the Whyte situation so I can concede on that one. Still doesn’t explain why Klitschko (someone wilder ducked) was ok to sign a fight before AJ-Molina (months in advance) but Wilder won’t sign now despite similar conditions. Smells fishy.. Also, Wilder’s team didn’t say anything because the contract was for April, but he couldn’t have come out a lot earlier to say “NO HOMBRE?” They had the contract for weeks and didn’t sign and didn’t even respond. Poor, in fact so poor it’s inexcusable and smacks of not being serious about negotiating.. Also you didn’t tell me why Wilder couldn’t have fought the guys AJ has for the 3 belts. Of course their respective resumes will be irrelevant when they fight. But in the meantime, it says AJ has fought OR at least has attempted to fight a better class of opponent than Wilder ever has - at least in the eyes of ‘independent’ adjudicators such as Ring magazine rankings - and he’s fought more of them. Which really ridicules this idea that AJ is a ducking coward. You and others continue to quote Lennox, Fury (lol) and Parker as “reasonable” commentators on the matter. Just wondering if Parker’s promoters comments about Wilder’s team’s behaviour are now going to be enshrined as truth since his team knows so much?

What so ironic is that AJ is so much bigger than Deontay. Wilder is a little guy. He is just tall and weighs only 214 lbs. While Joshua is freaking huge and muscular and weighs more than 260 lbs and yet he is still afraid of him. How can man that size and that strong be so weak and cowardly at the same time? Lolx.... Why is your brain so weak and cowardly? Let's start from there.

It's very simple, PPV doesn't determine a fighters popularity, the ratings do, and Wilder is among the top. Wilder gets higher ratings than GGG did, pre Canelo. Always over 1 million viewers no matter who he fights. Keith Thurman has one of the highest rated fights in boxing history, yet he still hasn't fought on PPV. Wilders last fight versus Ortiz went head to head against a Kovalev bout and a UFC PPV, even Dana White tweeted he was watching Wilder while sitting ring side at the octagon, still Wilder reached 1.2 million. Wilder is currently one of the most popular U.S. fighters, facts. Sold out Barclays which is extremely hard for boxers to do (Cotto couldn't even sell out Barclays). The fight Prior to that, Barclays closed the mezzanine and upper bowl to cut the arena down to just over 9k seats, they had to open up seats because they underestimated the demand. That fight sold over 10k tickets, which is technically a sell out due to the seating arrangement. The same thing happened With Wilders first fight at Barclays, Upper bowl and mezzanine were closed to create a seating arrangement of over 9k. The demand was so high that Barclays had to open the entire upper bowl to accommodate, which resulted in over 12k tickets sold. I don't think I need to explain to you how unusual and rare it is for a venue to change seating leading up to a live event. Anyway, the fact that AJ is more popular than Wilder has already been conceded, then why is it constantly brought up by AJ fans, over and over? Well it's for the same reason they choose to ignore Wilders popularity in the U.S., it's the only argument they have to justify the fight not happening, with out pinning blame on AJ. well, it's just alarming and amusing that a live gate of 12k is considered a sell out considering over 350mil people. It is what it is. Let's leave it just the way it is.

You keep talking about the resume, but don't seem to realize that's it's very easy to avoid the best fighters in boxing, then turn around and claim that their resume sucks. Wilder is the real deal, and is most dangerous threat in the heavyweight division. High risk, low reward, so avoided like the plague by most fighters. Only the toughest fighters fight him. Or the most confident... From my vantage point, Joshua never intended to fight Wilder next and continues to avoid him with a disrespectful flat-fee offer. Like Fury says, not even $50 million against 50% was enough for him to take the chance. Hopefully, after one or two confidence-building fights, Joshua will be ready. Until then, Wilder is the man to beat... What you fail to understand is fury say trash just a build a super fight with AJ. Any fighter that needs a pay day look towards AJ's direction not wilder. Until wilder build himself and put himself in such position, he is only chasing shadows.

What so ironic is that AJ is so much bigger than Deontay. Wilder is a little guy. He is just tall and weighs only 214 lbs. While Joshua is freaking huge and muscular and weighs more than 260 lbs and yet he is still afraid of him. How can man that size and that strong be so weak and cowardly at the same time?

Jeff Lacy was called the next Mike Tyson. After he lost people didn't say that anymore.

Joe Calzaghe didn't want to fight Kelly Pavlik. If he wanted to fight him it would have happened. I don't care what anybody thinks about it.

This saga reminds me a lot of Calzaghe vs Jeff Lacy. Lacy was this knockout sensation, although unproven vs the best opposition, and Calzaghe ultimately won the fight fairly easily but I think he was reluctant to take the risk and had to be talked into it by his dad. Calzaghe also didn't want to fight Kelly Pavlik and so let Hopkins beat him instead. Stop lying to the masses about Pavlik,and Lacy Calzaghe does not remind anyone of Joshua Wilder lmao...

Tyson Fury speaks the truth.

This saga reminds me a lot of Calzaghe vs Jeff Lacy. Lacy was this knockout sensation, although unproven vs the best opposition, and Calzaghe ultimately won the fight fairly easily but I think he was reluctant to take the risk and had to be talked into it by his dad. Calzaghe also didn't want to fight Kelly Pavlik and so let Hopkins beat him instead.