IBO Boxing Honesty and Integrity
By Scoop Malinowski
Deontay Wilder has been projecting his own image on to undisputed Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, calling the mighty Brit a protected franchise fighter, carefully protected by his greedy promoter Eddie Hearn.
Joshua proved he’s the real deal and the undisputed best when he knocked out the long-standing dominant kingpin Wladimir Klitschko to win the title. The same Klitschko that once beat up and knocked out Wilder in sparring. Joshua’s next opponent in weeks will be the undefeated champion Joseph Parker, who Wilder and his controller/protector Al Haymon had no interest in fighting.
Eddie Hearn didn’t wait long to fire back at Wilder, who is the most protected heavyweight boxer in history, having so far only fought 39 Al Haymon controlled patsies.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Joshua’s promoter Hearn answered back to Wilder’s silly, false accusations: “Talking of milking the cow, I think Deontay’s got a chip on his shoulder, because his udders are dry. He’s making very small money and needs a new promoter. I don’t think he has a promoter at the moment, so if he doesn’t – Deontay just pick up the phone, drop me a line. We’ll get this AJ fight, we’ll make you some real money.”
Despite the false propaganda Wilder hurled at Joshua and himself, Hearn delivered some nice praises to Wilder: “He’s WBC champion, he’s a great fighter, who is a great personality, but for this camp he’s been like a one-man salesman, just travelling around the globe, trying to sell his own fight. He should be in camp. This is a proper fight, his first real test.”
Hearn also made it clear his man Joshua wants to fight Wilder to obtain the WBC belt for his collection. But Wilder, who is not a selling attraction in the US or anywhere, is not going to earn a 50-50% split vs Joshua and has no basis to demand other than to use 50-50 as his way out of the fight.
“Make no mistake, I was with Anthony Joshua this morning, he wants to fight Deontay Wilder. He sees that as an easier fight potentially than the Joseph Parker fight. The plan (for Joshua) is to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He’s got to deal with Parker first on March 31, it’s a tough fight. After that, Deontay is coming to Cardiff, we can sit down, we can get that fight made. No problems from our side.”
It remains to be seen if Al Haymon and Wilder, into whom a fortune and years have been invested to try to manufacture him into a franchise American heavyweight star, will be willing to take on the high risk of fighting Joshua.
If Haymon and Wilder can just avoid Joshua for two or three more years they can surely reach 50-0 to break Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record. Astute ring observers believe Haymon could manipulate Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza into giving Haymon and Wilder a guaranteed lucrative, long-term contract to reach the 50-0 record while of course dodging and ducking Joshua until beyond 50-0 or hopefully until Joshua loses, the exact same strategy which Haymon and Mayweather used to dodge Manny Pacquiao for six years, until CBS boss Les Moonves finally stepped in and forced Haymon and Mayweather to fight Pacquiao in May 2015.
