Comments Thread For: Joshua, Hearn Stand Firm: Wilder Fight Must Be in The UK

[Redgloveman]

You don’t seriously believe that it’s for the fans, do you? Let’s not be naive.

Hearn wants to control the promotion. He can’t do that if it’s in the USA.

What's naive about it?

Joshua consistently talks about his fans. Either you believe him that the fans (and essentially how he's viewed by them) mean a lot to him or you don't.

If you believe it's fake then you've got to accept that he's doing it for a reason (e.g. publicity, marketability, whatever). If that's the case then it's worth something to him so he's going to want to keep up the act by delivering the fight to the UK fans - not cut 85,000 of them out when he sniffs an opportunity to make more money elsewhere.

The longterm PR value is likely to make up the lost revenue anyway PLUS he gets hometown advantage in the biggest HW fight of the decade.

[uppercut510]

im sorry but you aj fans who are defending this are taking the piss, you all look terrible trying to defend this.

[bluemax]

Both of these fighters should suck it up and fight in a neutral country. It's pretty apparent why Joshua and his handlers want the fight on their ground where they can have a huge influence on the outcome and Wilder's handlers to some degree want the same advantage. This is nothing new in boxing. Look how many sweet decisions fighters like Canelo are able to pull out and Mayweather did the same thing. Wilder knows he'll need a knockout to win but if you let Joshua control the venue he'll slant it his way with a huge bouncy ring to limit power and have plenty of escape routes, he'll aslo have a referee that will let him tie Wilder up all night without so much as a warning. Let these two fight on neutral ground with neutral officials and lets see a real fight. We need a real international commission that sets rules like ring size and gloves and not leave it up to the A side promoter. How about a real fight?

[Califire209]

No problem, Wilder already said he would fight anywhere in the World because he is the Heavyweight Champ of the World.
I'm glad this fight will take place in the UK because it will be sweeter to see AJ face-first on the canvas in front of 80,000 of his own people.

[Smash]

i mean going to vegas is great, for wilder, its a cesspit of home town decisions week in and week out, it happens so often its shock when it doesnt, people may say this fight is not going the distance, but it might and there is no way that wilder could actually decision joshua, except if its in the states and then its a near guarantee i would say unless its a total wipeout from wilder which is very unlikely.

Joshua needs to ko wilder in vegas and vice versa, except thats the only way wilder wins. Plus the ref, so important in these big fights and can often make or break the fight for one guy, vegas is bought, uk is close behind tho p

Then whats wilders purse in this fight if joshua agrees a flat fee? 20 mil, 40 mil, 70 mil? What if the fight really does great somehow. Speculation is great but people are often wrong.

[doom_specialist]

$50M + PPV should have been enough to get Joshua to travel, considering that he's making $15M or more fighting unknowns. He could have taken that payday and went back home to even bigger money, after claiming Wilder's belt and becoming undisputed. I can only see him being controlled and/or unsure of himself. Everybody takes $50M guaranteed with residuals.

On the other hand, with a 100K seat stadium, you don't need to up the prices on tickets to Mayweather levels to get an impressive gate. Wilder could also consider the business side of things, even if he has the money to put up for the fight. I understand both sides of the argument, but I side with Wilder's more because I'm not a promoter and I don't care about how people do business. I just want a fight, and Wilder is being much more proactive than Joshua right now.

[Madison Boxing]

T-Mobile Arena will have 20k+ spectators hyped for the fight (with stars packing in the event), and another 40k-50k fans across MGM Resorts (MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay EC, etc) watching on closed circuit.

Don't make yourself look ******

I'm not great at maths but 90k is quite a lot more than 20k

[Scipio2009]

But can you really buy leverage in negotiations? Obviously Wilder really doesn't want to fight in the UK if he is trying to pay his way into a position to call the shots. He is kind of showing a little bit of a weakness and I can understand how team Joshua would want to exploit that. And personally, I've never heard of the B side fighter paying the A side fighter to relinquish their A side privileges before.

$12m, for a fight of this magnitude, to Wilder, Joshua, and the world, was short money to make the trip and everyone knows it.

40% of the take (Matchroom Sport stages the event, Joshua and Matchroom split what's left after according to their rumored 80/20 deal, and Joshua and Wilder split the remaining proceeds 60/40 Joshua, with Wilder satisfying his side out of his 40%) gets Wilder to the UK without much question.

World of Boxing paid double what Klitschko's company paid to bring Klitschko to Russia to fight Povetkin, Saul Alvarez basically gave Miguel Cotto the full MGM Resorts site fee to not have to fight in Las Vegas, etc.

[Nomadic]

I wouldn't expect nothing less, AJ has a huge fan base at home. Wilder has no problem traveling, not his first road trip.

[peplz]

wilder said that if he got a percentage hed fight in the uk, hearn said "WILDER IS NOT WORTH A PERCENTAGE" even though parker was?????????? so aj asked for 50mil and got the offer... wouldn't you want control of the venue if you offered the most money? whats so hard to understand? there was no counter offer after hearn got his questions answered! if hearn wants the control of the venue all he had to do was offer a percentage! what is the issue with you guys? is this not clear or are we crazy????

I think what I said was pretty clear. When has any A side fighter reluinshed their A side privileges for any amount of money? Never. They take both the money and the control of choosing the location. He didn't say "if you give me 50 mill I'll do whatever you tell me to." Wilder is going to have to accept that no matter what he says or does he is the B side of this fight. He isn't going to be deciding where the fight takes place. And it sounds like Anthony Joshua is willing to take less money to maintain his advantage in this regard. You as a Wilder fan may not like it but no fan likes it when their guy has to take a subordinate position. It's just the facts of life.