Quote Originally Posted by ono View Post
I fear for the sanity of anyone who genuinely believed that Wilder ever had any interest in this fight happening this year.

Promotion 101. Using AJ's name to build his own profile, so he can demand a bigger slice of the pie next year.

To clarify the key points...

Wilder has turned down $12.5m - 6 times his highest purse, with the ability to make double that in a rematch should he win (which he believes he will). So, why would you turn down the opportunity to net around $40m and become undisputed Heavyweight champion, and therefore, a global superstar?

Wilder made a verbal offer for AJ to receive $50m (as a retaliation to a comment AJ made) but then Finkel refused to actually meet with Hearn to discuss further after Hearn said he was very interested, and obviously refused to send a contract.

Hearn then made an offer which Wilder was publicly happy with on the proviso that a couple of small changes were made (according to Finkel). Finkel then went public and confirmed this to Dan Rafael, but stated that Hearn would have to wait 6 days to hear his comments (knowing full well Hearn was on the 7th week of a WBA extension and was at a point whee he was applying for daily extensions).

WBA saw the interview on ESPN and interjected by calling for the Povetkin fight.

Hearn goes down the Povetkin route but then enhances his offer to Wilder by adding a $5m bonus fight for him to fight any top 15 ranked fighter (could have been Breazeale, who he will instead fight for half of that). Hearn publicly leaves the offer open.

Wilder then publicly announces that he is only willing to accept 50/50 split

Additional facts

AJ/Klitschko and AJ/Parker had more UK PPV buys than Wilder/Ortiz had US TV views.

Joshua is routinely generating enough money to earn around £10m-£15m per fight.

Joshua is selling out 80,000/90,000 capacity stadiums in a heartbeat.

Wilder is making around $2m a fight and struggling to sell out the Barclays Centre (free tickets had to be given away for the Ortiz fight).

Joshua has already beaten Ring Ranked number 1 fighter (at the time), number 3 (at the time), number 6 (current) and number 7 (current). He has an offer on the table for the current number 2 and has signed to fight the current number 3.

Wilder's only legitimate challenge (in almost twice as many fights) was a guy who is rumoured to actually be 48 and was almost pulled from the fight an hour before the ringwalk due to high blood pressure.

Financially, with the offer that stands, Wilder would earn around 7-8 times his usual purse. Joshua would probably stand to earn about 1.5 times his current average

On a sporting level, Wilder is being more than suitably compensated - he has the chance to obtain an additional 3 world titles

Should he win (and he should believe that he does), he stands to double his earnings in a rematch and then become a global superstar.

Instead, he has declared he wants to get to 51-0 and will probably do so, taking on a series of non-threats for $2m a time.

Absolute jokes.
Gold standard summary. Class.