Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua have agreed terms for a heavyweight unification bout which will take place at a British venue later this year.
Heavyweight world titleholder Deontay Wilder has agreed to the terms offered by Anthony Joshua’s camp for them to meet for the undisputed title later this year in Joshua’s home country of the United Kingdom, Wilder co-manager Shelly Finkel told ESPN on Monday.
Whether the fight, easily one of the biggest in boxing, gets signed remains to be seen, but the Wilder camp said they’ve agreed to the terms in the latest offer made by Joshua promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing.
“We have agreed to the terms that Eddie has put out to us for a fight in the U.K. Deontay has accepted his terms to fight in the U.K.,” Finkel said.
“Deontay sent an email to Joshua [Sunday] night, and I sent one [Monday] to Barry Hearn and Eddie telling them that we officially accept the offer to fight under the terms they gave us and to send us the contract.”
Hearn did not respond to text messages from ESPN seeking comment, but it was late at night in England at the time.
The key hang-up in the talks has been where they would fight. Joshua is a massive star in the United Kingdom, where he has drawn sellout crowds for his past three fights: 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in London and 78,000 for his past two fights at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. He insisted on having the fight there, even if the overall revenue for the event could be greater in Las Vegas.
The Wilder camp held out hope of him agreeing to come to the United States, but on Sunday night, Wilder and his team said they notified Eddie Hearn and his father, company boss Barry Hearn, that they had accepted the terms offered to them.
“Now we will see if they live up to it or if they try to go through with the fight with [mandatory challenger Alexander] Povetkin first. Hopefully, we’ll get an answer in the next couple days,” Finkel said.
“If they change their mind, the $50 million [against 50 percent of the event] we offered them [to come to the United States] is still on the table. That is still for them if they want it.”
Finkel, who said he and Wilder co-manager Al Haymon talk daily and are on the same page, said the offer Wilder accepted is a two-fight deal with terms agreed to for a rematch that would take place in the United States.
For the fight they said they agreed to for later this year, Finkel said the target date is Sept. 15, but the fight could be in October or November because Sept. 15 is the proposed date for the rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, which they would not compete with.
Although Finkel wouldn’t specify how much money Wilder would earn, Hearn has made two previous offers of $12.5 million and $15 million. Finkel said they accepted a guaranteed purse but did not get a percentage of the overall event that they wanted, meaning Wilder was likely offered a large enough guarantee above $15 million to make it worthwhile to forgo a percentage.
“There’s no [percentage] split, but they’ve offered us a good purse. Not as good as we feel it should be, but we want the fight, and we’re willing to take what they offered,” Finkel said.
“We wanted a percentage, but we didn’t think we could get it done in a quick time frame, so we said let’s take what they’ve offered us. Deontay wants this fight.”
Wilder addressed Joshua’s fans on social media on Monday, writing, “The $50M offer for him to fight me next in the U.S. is still available. Today I even agreed to their offer to fight Joshua next in the UK. If he prefers the fight in the UK, the ball is in their court. It’s up to them to choose.”
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