Comments Thread For: Hearn: Unless $50M Offer is Bluff, Wilder's Team Must Meet Me!

[Patsfan bri]

I think it’s funny how so many idiots still try to spin this like wilder is avoiding the fight. 2 weeks ago Hearn said , pay us 50 mil and we will take the fight period, now Hearn is concerned that the fight will be in the US, where will the funds come from blah blah. It doesn’t matter if they fight in Hong Kong, you said you would take 50 million. And as far as funds go, well we all know that comes from the live gate , cable networks, PPV, sponsors and so on.

[super-x]

I think it’s more flexing on Finkell / Haymons part and letting Hearn know he played himself and is a crumb compared to them. So either accept the offer your fighter said he wanted which is also the highest HW guarantee of all time and give up control of the biggest financial fight or shut the f.uck up and start with the excuses that everyone knows will be BS

Hearn went on for months basically calling Dibella who was once head of HBo boxing and a top promoter in the sport a f.ucking PBC lackey

Shelly Finkel who ls been involved in the biggest fights in the sport and is a HOFer was a old nobody who wasn’t even given the respect from Hearn to call him by his name and not worthy to have a discussion about the fight with

And from all indication Hearn pulled a fast one on Haymon when it came to Danny Jacobs

And even through all that they still sat back and let Hearn provide a initial offer where he’d have all the control for the fight which was a pathetic low ball one, where he wouldn’t even consider a % to Wilders team basically take it or leave it

These guys after all that were probably like fine you want to play hard ball. Let’s go suck a d.ick take this offer but your not even worth our time so take it or leave it peasant you don’t run sh.it except your mouth

You could be very well be right on the money, Al Haymon is a big player in the boxing world and has the means to make this in to a massive event, but they also know Hearn would never give up full control of the fight, not even for that sort of money. That email deal is incredible if its legit, 50mill plus 50/50 on top with no rematch clause is a no brainer. But yes I am also coming to believe it was a power move to show Hearn dont mess with us. Hearn aint accepting that deal without a full breakdown and even with the full breakdown given Hearn wont give up full control. So team haymon successfully make Hearn and AJ look like they all talk and turned down the biggest guarantee is HW boxing.

[Redgloveman]

You're just wrong man. Sorry. You're a fan. You don't negotiate fights for a living. You have no way of knowing if what you're saying is true.

Nobody was asking for a hard anything. Finkel just wants to know if the major deal point (money) would be acceptable if the other deal points were satisfactory. This happens in negotiating all the time. When the NBA owners are negotiating with the NBA players, until they agree on a split, they don't move on to the finer points. And just because they agree on a split doesn't mean anything is contractually bound, deals fall apart all the time over the smaller details.

Please don't presume to tell me what I do and don't know. Trust me when I say I understand how contract law works.

As I have written elsewhere, Hearn and Joshua have already shown a willingness to agree to the price of $50m. Joshua tweeting "let's roll" and Hearn saying "If you have the money, show us it now and we can talk [we're] definitely interested. We want to see if it's real, we want to see the money, we want to see where it is and we'll carry on talking". If Finkel et al want assurances that Joshua is open to negotiations on those terms then it's pretty clear that they already have them.

However, the point is that Finkel evidently wants more than this.

Finkel emailed:

Dear Eddie,
With all due respect you know Al and I for a long time and you know this is not a publicity stunt. I assure you that we’re serious and we would be glad to sit down with you and provide proper security for the funding and work out all the details.
But it all has to start with Anthony Joshua accepting the $50million offer that he asked for, which is also by far the largest guarantee and largest purse any heavyweight champion in history has ever made.
Until then, it would be non-productive to meet. Please have Anthony accept the offer that he asked for and let’s get this fight made.
Thanks, Shelly


Talking about "accepting the offer" is legally very explicit wording. If the email had talked about "accept in principal" or "negotiating along these lines" then it would be a different story, but if I was Hearn's legal adviser I'd tell him not to publicly accept this offer, because he could easily end up being sued for breach of contract - not to mention the PR nightmare and the ceding of A-side position.

If Finkel is serious about making this fight next he should meet with Hearn. I hope that that is what he is doing behind closed doors.

[DuckAdonis]

Why is team wilder refusing to meet Hearn if the offer is real

[N/A]

Why is team wilder refusing to meet Hearn if the offer is real

Because Hearn is refusing to say whether he'd accept the offer if it was real.

[N/A]

Please don't presume to tell me what I do and don't know. Trust me when I say I understand how contract law works.

Just because you know how contract law works doesn't mean you know how boxing negotiations typically go down. This is standard procedure all the time. You agree on the money and then try to hammer out the details to get a fight done. Agreeing on the money binds you to nothing. Fights fall apart over the details all the time.

Hearn didn't have to publicly accept anything. All he had to do was email Finkel and say, "if the rest of the terms are negotiated to mutual satisfaction, we would agree with the financial framework you've offered." Then you meet to try to hammer out a deal. But Finkel and Haymon are not going to waste their time meeting with Hearn only for Hearn to say, "well I never agreed to 50, I actually need 60."

[Holler]

Please don't presume to tell me what I do and don't know. Trust me when I say I understand how contract law works.

As I have written elsewhere, Hearn and Joshua have already shown a willingness to agree to the price of $50m. Joshua tweeting "let's roll" and Hearn saying "If you have the money, show us it now and we can talk [we're] definitely interested. We want to see if it's real, we want to see the money, we want to see where it is and we'll carry on talking". If Finkel et al want assurances that Joshua is open to negotiations on those terms then it's pretty clear that they already have them.

However, the point is that Finkel evidently wants more than this.

Finkel emailed:

Dear Eddie,
With all due respect you know Al and I for a long time and you know this is not a publicity stunt. I assure you that we’re serious and we would be glad to sit down with you and provide proper security for the funding and work out all the details.
But it all has to start with Anthony Joshua accepting the $50million offer that he asked for, which is also by far the largest guarantee and largest purse any heavyweight champion in history has ever made.
Until then, it would be non-productive to meet. Please have Anthony accept the offer that he asked for and let’s get this fight made.
Thanks, Shelly


Talking about "accepting the offer" is legally very explicit wording. If the email had talked about "accept in principal" or "negotiating along these lines" then it would be a different story, but if I was Hearn's legal adviser I'd tell him not to publicly accept this offer, because he could easily end up being sued for breach of contract - not to mention the PR nightmare and the ceding of A-side position.

If Finkel is serious about making this fight next he should meet with Hearn. I hope that that is what he is doing behind closed doors.

Great post.

It's amazing how many people expect deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with massive potential exposure and complex ramifications affecting vested third parties to be concluded via social media posts.

Serious business doesn't work that way.

[soul_survivor]

Wilders team don't want that work.

They want to stall until AJ has to fight Povetkin.

This offer is all about saving face and making it appear Wilder isn't the B side. They aren't prepared to risk their American heavyweight hope just yet.

AJ says 'Lets roll' and suddenly they are cancelling meetings.

AJ called their bluff within 30 mins.

It's remarkable that they would not want to meet with a potential business partner and put up a stipulation - "agree to the offer". Does that make any sort of sense?

[Redgloveman]

Just because you know how contract law works doesn't mean you know how boxing negotiations typically go down. This is standard procedure all the time. You agree on the money and then try to hammer out the details to get a fight done. Agreeing on the money binds you to nothing. Fights fall apart over the details all the time.

I have at least layman's understanding of how boxing negotiations typically do down. However, any amount of knowledge or any particular trade custom doesn't preclude the law of contract from taking effect. I'm not necessarily saying that legal action would necessarily result from Hearn "accepting the offer", I'm saying that no legal adviser would EVER advise a client to accept (or be seen to accept). For the exact same reason there is virtually no chance that Hearn would do so himself and I think Finkel knows this. Hearn would be in a terrible position if he publicly "accepted the offer", both from a contractual and PR perspective.

Hearn didn't have to publicly accept anything. All he had to do was email Finkel and say, "if the rest of the terms are negotiated to mutual satisfaction, we would agree with the financial framework you've offered." Then you meet to try to hammer out a deal. But Finkel and Haymon are not going to waste their time meeting with Hearn only for Hearn to say, "well I never agreed to 50, I actually need 60."

He did publicly accept to the extent that you are suggesting Finkel has demanded. How is what you have written in any way substantially or effectively different from saying:

"If you have the money, show us it now and we can talk [we're] definitely interested. We want to see if it's real, we want to see the money, we want to see where it is and we'll carry on talking"

Asking for proof of funds is hardly an unreasonable claim and should not be a stumbling block.

Look, I'm loath to take sides in this because both sides are pretty toxic, but the meeting that was cancelled should go ahead if they want to make the fight next. I see no reason for refusing a meeting IF both sides want the fight next.

Personally I think both sides are interested in dragging this out to make the event bigger than it already is. The press are getting interested in the story (ridiculous as it is) and it's translating down to the public. At the moment not enough casuals know about this fight and I think both sides want to cash in.

[Redgloveman]

Great post.

It's amazing how many people expect deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with massive potential exposure and complex ramifications affecting vested third parties to be concluded via social media posts.

Serious business doesn't work that way.

Thanks

I think that whilst people are waiting for fights they enjoy the machismo circus of little victories here and there about who is "ducking" who... before either fighter even realistically has a chance to duck the other.

Months ago when Joshua was signed to fight Parker, the Wilder side was going crazy about how Joshua was terrified, ducking, a clown. etc. etc.

A few days ago, when the Wilder side had been sent Hearn's offer and seemed to go quiet the AJ side went nuts over how Wilder was looking to sidestep the fight and didn't really want it.

Now we've got both sides shouting at each other...

it's not exactly edifying but it's fun in a perverse kind of way.