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

[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.

[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

[alexguiness]

Joshua does not come out of this looking great TBH.

At least he is humble about the whole affair.

[hitking]

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.

Explain how you came to this conclusion. When Wilder’s side was assuming all the financial risks. Especially when AJ isn’t a proven draw in America. Which is where the fight would have taken place had AJ accepted the $50M guarantee. The only thing we have to go on as far as AJ’s drawing power in America is his low TV ratings. Wilder’s ratings are actually better.

[champion4ever]

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.

Just what the Hell are you talking about. Deontay wasn't fighting over money. He offered AJ $50 Million plus a percentage of the gate and pay per view fee of which he both turned down.

Wilder agreed to take short money for this bout all along by agreeing to all of their terms and conditions. This fight should have been one of the easiest fights to make in history. Not only did Deontay agreed to give AJ the larger slice of the pie, he even agreed to fight him in his own country.

As I've stated earlier and just as Lennox Lewis so eloquently stated recently, if Joshua really wanted this fight it would have happened. He said he wanted it after the Joseph Parker fight but suddenly changed his tune.

He has no excuses for cancelling this fight because Deontay bent and bent some more but Joshua and his Team just never wanted this fight to begin with but in order to save face, were just to afraid to admit it.

[Ray*]

Just what the Hell are you talking about. Deontay wasn't fighting over money. He offered AJ $50 Million plus a percentage of the gate and pay per view fee of which he both turned down.

Wilder agreed to take short money for this bout all along by agreeing to all of their terms and conditions. This fight should have been one of the easiest fights to make in history. Not only did Deontay agreed to give AJ the larger slice of the pie, he even agreed to fight him in his own country.

As I've stated earlier and just as Lennox Lewis so eloquently stated recently, if Joshua really wanted this fight it would have happened. He said he wanted it after the Joseph Parker fight but suddenly changed his tune.

He has no excuses for cancelling this fight because Deontay bent and bent some more but Joshua and his Team just never wanted this fight to begin with but in order to save face, were just to afraid to admit it.

If Wilder took short money we would have had this fight signed on the 12.5m flat fee. Try again. If Both sides wanted this fight it would have happened by now just like Lewis said. It takes two to tango.

[Zaryu]

Very true words from Lennox Lewis.

[champion4ever]

If Wilder took short money we would have had this fight signed on the 12.5m flat fee. Try again. If Both sides wanted this fight it would have happened by now just like Lewis said. It takes two to tango.

Since when $2.5 million is a deal breaker? Perhaps Wilder would have taken the $12.5m Flat-fee but Joshua requested a $50 million guarantee, in addition, to the upside of the pay per view sales and live gate.

However, Joshua wasn't permitted to keep it because he had been instructed by his promoters Barry and Eddie Hearn to return it so they could stage the fight in the U.K. Therefore he turned the offer down. To his credit, Deontay Wilder agreed and conceded to all of Anthony Joshua terms and yet still there was no fight.

So it's not hard to see who really wanted this fight to happen and the ones who were actually negotiating in good faith and it was definitely not AJ or his Team.

[JohnP2]

Slice it and dice it any way you want, but the boxing world has officially viewed AJ ducking Wilder as
THE BIGGEST DUCK IN BOXING HISTORY

[The Big Dunn]

Lennox is spot on with this assessment. AJ has the right to choose. His choice was Povetkin. Ok accept that he went for the payday before the tougher defense and move on.

You know what is really wrong with boxing- a guy that cheated twice to avoid fighting Wilder gets chosen for a title fight ahead of Wilder.