According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, the team of Deontay Wilder offered Anthony Joshua $50 for a Unification bout this fall.
Shelly Finkel, who manages Wilder along with Al Haymon and trainer Jay Deas, said the offer is for $50 million against 50 percent of the event revenue, meaning Joshua would make no less than that figure no matter how much the fight generated. If the fight generated more than $100 million, which Finkel believes it could, Joshua would make even more, and if it lost money, the Wilder side would be on the hook to pay Joshua.
“It’s a giant number,” Finkel said. “But it’s also a giant fight.”
Finkel detailed additional elements of the offer for what would be a pay-per-view fight in the United States; all of Joshua’s title fights have been on pay-per-view in the United Kingdom, his home country. Finkel said the offer calls for the Wilder side to select the location of the fight, but they would look to do it in the United States, probably Las Vegas.
He also said there would be no rematch clause and the fight would have to be next for each man. As for the timing of the bout, Finkel said it would take place between September and the end of the year.
“It has to be the next fight for each of them,” he said. “No rematch clause, and it’s for all the belts. We asked for them to send us an acceptance [by the end of Thursday]. Joshua [previously] asked for $50 million against 50 percent, and we gave it to them. They probably don’t believe it’s this big of an offer, but it’s an unbelievable offer. I hope they accept. Deontay is thrilled and believes Joshua will take it.”
“Anthony, get your man Eddie and [his father] Barry Hearn to check their email. I got something special for you,” Wilder said. “By the way, all the money’s in the bag. So I expect you’ll be a man of your word.”
“To me, this look like a PR move, but it’s something we obviously take seriously,” Hearn said. “I’ll be asking for a contact and also some answers to some important questions, like where is the fight going to be?”
“There’s no second fight in the offer. That’s not the end of the world if the deal is right,” Hearn said. “There are obviously other things that need to be addressed. Joshua has a number of existing broadcast deals in multiple territories [though he is a free agent in the U.S.]. Also the offer comes from Deontay Wilder and, with all due respect, he doesn’t have $50 million, so we need to know where the money is coming from. We want to do the fight in the U.K., but if we get an acceptable and secure offer, we’ll certainly look at it and take it seriously.
“They said we have to accept the fight by [Thursday], which is ridiculous when we have questions that need to be answered,” Hearn said. “But we have a meeting on Friday, and we will go through the offer. I’d like to see a contract and see where the money is coming from, and the location of the fight is important. We don’t have a problem doing it in America, even though we’d like to do it in the U.K.”
