Comments Thread For: Charles Martin: Anthony Joshua Scared To Fight on April 9

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs)is prepared to travel over to the UK to fight Olympic gold medal winner Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15KOs) on April 9th.

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[NEETzsche]

everyone wants a piece of joshua since he pulled >400k PPV buys while looking somewhat vulnerable in the process

[HAY-B]

Strange. I would have bet the farm that Hearn and Joshua would have jumped all over this. I guess I have more confidence in Joshua than he an his team do. Although people don't give Martin credit, he can box but I feel Joshua's power would be the difference maker if they were to fight. Maybe Hearn feels the title would force Joshua to fight some guys he's really not prepared for right now.

[skinnystev]

biblical has turned down any meaningful challenge ever proposed biblical is a coward and a fraud

[Ray*]

Looking forward to hearing what the other side has to say.

[PhillyBox11]

I guess AJ not the beast everyone is saying if he passes on this opportunity. Credit to Martin going after the perceived #1 non-champion. I guess that will change if AJ rejects. Some of the aura will be off him for sure.

[Scipio2009]

Strange. I would have bet the farm that Hearn and Joshua would have jumped all over this. I guess I have more confidence in Joshua than he an his team do. Although people don't give Martin credit, he can box but I feel Joshua's power would be the difference maker if they were to fight. Maybe Hearn feels the title would force Joshua to fight some guys he's really not prepared for right now.

The second question, however, is to ask how much Martin's representative asked Hearn to put up to make that fight.

Charles Martin, in his biggest fight and biggest payday of his career, made $250k in fighting for the vacant IBF heavyweight belt.

With the whispers going around that Joshua is already a +400k buys PPV fighter (@$30/PPV, with the splits going how they're going, it could be guessed that Joshua brought in the equivalent of $6m on Box Office) and he's already pushing ticket prices into premium territory at his 20k-seat home venue (O2 Arena).

With Jennings's camp slow-walking things over money, I have no doubt that Hearn would sign the contract yesterday if Martin's camp asked for $400k (it'd give Joshua a massive event for the O2, a winnable fight tbh, and a 1-yr timeframe, as already stated by the IBF, before any mandatory defense is due; Hearn can easily book two more fights for Joshua, while also opening a path for Joseph Parker to get to mandatory position, and make another big fight).

My guess, though, is that Martin's people (note that Haymon likely is un-involved at this point) started off with looking for a $1m-$2m payday, which Hearn likely laughed at, in a cheeky British way.

[ShoulderRoll]

Turning down Haye and now turning down Charles Martin. I guess Hearn realizes that Joshua isn't ready for the big fights just yet.

[robbyheartbaby]

A world title shot after only 2 years on the pro circuit and 15 fights? I would be giving Joshua some time too, at least another year and 3 or 4 fights surely, props for getting rated so highly but what does that mean these days. Martin obviously sees $$$$ above Joshua's inexperienced head.

[joe strong]

Turning down Haye and now turning down Charles Martin. I guess Hearn realizes that Joshua isn't ready for the big fights just yet.

Hearn knows he has real cash cow in joshua. If he is doing 400000 PPV against guys like whyte what he do against haye or fury? Hearn isn't going to rush anything with AJ while he is making money. The sport is a business & hearn is going to make as much as he can...