Quote Originally Posted by Ron Swanson View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing View Post
He wants a massive payday and he doesn't want any risky fights in between then and now.
I think you are spot on. But need to consider why. And I think both sides know why. Because Wilder breaks his hand in every fight. There's a decent chance if the fight doesn't happen now it never happens.
And there's a non-negligible chance that at the level he's at now he could easily get sparked. He doesn't exactly havesolid fundamentals, lots of holes in his swing and a shaky chin mean he's always just one punch away from having his bubble burst. Wasn't he due about twenty million to fight Povetkin before Povetkin tested positive? Whatever the number was that's the one in his head dictating his decisions. He wants a risk free path to a similar payday which means getting Joshua in the ring asap. That's why he doesn't want to hear about mandatories.

Similarly if Joshua is at risk from any of the top contenders you've got to think Wilder's right hand is top of the list of risks. Wilder has the athleticism and the wingspan to land something big and Whyte showed Joshua's chin isn't rock solid either. So Team Joshua might well want to fight a bunch of mandatories and keep Wilder at arm's length for a while. I actually watched the Wilder video and started to watch the Eddie video but had to switch it off when he put sunglasses on and started doing a Wilder impression. There's only so much a man can take.

Bottom line is the Joshua money express can continue without worrying about Wilder too much. It's not like Wilder is a massive US star and could generate a million PPV views and a big casino cheque. Wilder needs to make himself unavoidable but doesn't fancy what t would take to get there and definitely his fragile hand factors into that.