Comments Thread For: Lennox Lewis: Joshua Changed His Tune About Fighting Wilder

[alexguiness]

Joshua does not come out of this looking great TBH.

At least he is humble about the whole affair.

[Jkp]

Yes AJ said it in a recent interview and also said he's going to run his career the way he wants and that he's not going to be rushed into a fight. That's where Lennox got it from, it's on YouTube.

The only way to be a champ is fight the best. If he's not ready he should give up his belt.

Paper champ

[apollocreed]

right on man. Even Lennox could see who was ducking who and even a few brits on this board are starting to admit it. Of course their are a few brits who refuse to believe it and even if AJ himself said he was ducking wilder they still wouldn’t believe it.

I'm a Brit, and I'm not even a Joshua fan, I just think they should fight as a neutral boxing fan. He's just a big musclebound tree to me. Lewis on the other hand is an all time great and the best of his era, with Holyfield in second.

[artfuL_]

Coming from a true champ, Lewis knows the deal.

[EnglishOxide]

Not even Hearn is painting this story. Joshua was getting 50 million, who cares what wilder gets. Hearn didn’t think the fight was worth it, so...

He didn't think the fight was worth it because AJ was potentially giving up everything for only 50%. As his promoter he would not be doing his job of he encouraged AJ to take it.

[Ray*]

Well what can you do when one side holds all the cards as the other side agrees to all of its terms and demands? Absolutely nothing! You are at the mercy of the side with more leverage. Lennox Lewis was right. AJ had this super mega fight by the balls but changed his tune. Deontay did everything in his power to conceivably make this fight happen by making several concessions but in the end it takes two to fight and Joshua just didn't want that work.

Look when a fight like this falls apart then the A-side gets the blame every single time because they are the A-side, my point is quite simple. When you are not the A-side then don’t fight over money. Take the short end of the stick, get that A-side in the ring and get that win, trying the “No one pushes us around” thing never works for the B-side. Especially in this instance when we all know that Hearn would Probably rather not have the fight next, once he starts offering that fight take it. Call his bluff, the difference between is first and second offer was 2.5m, I didn’t think that was enough not to get that fight signed. People would rather fight over “Flat fee” than sign a contract. Mayweather taught us how to play that game perfectly with De la Hoya, but some of these B-side are more motivated by money.

[mattr]

Tyson was pretty close to being a shot fighter when you fought him, Lennox. Not a fair comparison. He was nowhere near 1987/88 Tyson in 2002.

[Ray*]

I thought you were backing AJ on this matter? Apologies if I'm mistaken.

No am not, I feel both teams deserve equal blame. More so Team AJ, I also blame Team Wilder because they shouldn’t let this saga come this far.

[Progrssive_Jedi]

No?

We don't do blind patriotism like the Americans. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Joshua DID change his tune. No doubt about it. Does that mean it's a duck? Hell no. His reasoning for changing his tune was very fair IMO.

- Nobody told us what Wilder would get from the $50m offer. How could Joshua be sure he was getting a fair slice?

- Wilder would have EVERYTHING else in his favour if AJ said yes.

- If the fight exceeded expectations Wilder could have got $55m and Joshua got $55m. As the draw in this situation, AJ is not going to give up EVERY advantage for only 50%.

Let's be real here. If Wilder offered guaranteed $50m or 60/40, maybe 65/35 split? AJ would have probably accepted.

Not even Hearn is painting this story. Joshua was getting 50 million, who cares what wilder gets. Hearn didn’t think the fight was worth it, so...

[Progrssive_Jedi]

WE knew from the get go A.J. wasn’t going to fight Wilder yet. Wilder is 32, A.J. is going to sit back and pretend to want it while getting rich.

Whatever, it’s obvious. Even his own country mates are calling BS, they know.

Wilder is the true champ, A.J. is pretending