David Higgins, the promoter for Joseph Parker, believes Deontay Wilder is being unrealistic in his demands for a high stakes unification with Anthony Joshua.
A few weeks ago, Wilder and Joshua were unable to reach an agreement with each other for a potential fall showdown.
Joshua will now defend the WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO titles against Alexander Povetkin on September 22nd at Wembley Stadium in London.
Wilder's next fight is unknown, but he may defend in the fall against WBC mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale.
Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, has placed an offer on the table for the date of April 13, also at Wembley. The deal would give Wilder a guarantee of $15 million for the fight.
Wilder has brushed off the terms - and wants at least an even 50-50 split when it comes to the monetary terms.
According to Higgins, Wilder's demands are killing the deal.
“Let’s be honest, Joshua’s the A-side, he’s a commercial juggernaut, he’s the only man in boxing who’s regularly filling 80,000 seat stadiums. Him and Eddie Hearn have built that. Who’s Wilder to want 50 percent when he hasn’t even sold out his hometown arena? We wanted a good deal and we got a deal but we were also mindful of not being so greedy that they couldn’t do the deal. And that’s what’s happening with Wilder. It’s not Joshua dodging Wilder, it’s that the Wilder side are so outrageously cynical and greedy that they’re killing the deal,” the New Zealander tells Boxing News.
Higgins is still expecting the fight to eventually happen - but not until Wilder steps down from his current demands.
“Of course it’ll happen. It’s [Wilder’s] first big payday. It’ll happen when his expectations come back down to earth. Until then, Eddie Hearn will keep calling his bluff. If they think they’re going to beat Joshua, why do they need 50-50? It’s almost like they see it as their one shot to grab as much money as possible,” Higgins says.
“Eddie Hearn and Joshua are the A-side and they hold all the cards in the negotiation and the Wilder-Al Haymon-Shelly Finkel side will come under increasing pressure as time goes on. If I were Joshua and Eddie Hearn, I’d ignore this rubbish about Joshua dodging Wilder, they’re just using that to try to steal money off Joshua basically that they don’t deserve. They’re trying to steal money off Joshua that they don’t deserve. They haven’t earned it, Joshua has.”
