EDDIE HEARN has branded Deontay Wilder’s $50m offer to Anthony Joshua as a ‘load of bollocks’ after a planned New York meeting to discuss the deal was cancelled for the second time.
The WBC heavyweight champion sent Hearn, Joshua and his trainer Robert McCracken an offer to face him in a unification clash this year for a guarantee of at least $50m and gave them 24 hours to respond.
The Matchroom boss had already scheduled a meeting with Wilder’s two advisors Al Haymon and Shelly Finkel for Thursday morning in Manhattan but the offer, made on Wednesday, prompted Finkel to postpone the arrangement for a day.
However Hearn, who has taken to calling Finkel “Shirley Winkle”, says that meeting did not take place either, leaving him scratching his head about the validity of the initial $50m offer.
He said: “So we get the offer. $50m is a lot of money, we are definitely interested in that but the devil is in the detail. I go back to Deontay Wilder and say something like ‘Dear Deontay, we are very interested in your offer, obviously there is lots to discuss. Please send us a draft contract and we will come back to you as soon as possible.
“He replies, ‘We are not going to send you a contract until you agree to the deal’. Have you ever heard so much bull**** in your life?
“Then Shirley Winkle cancels our meeting on Thursday and says we can meet on Friday. So I send an email ‘let’s meet at 10:30am on Friday’. But then he sends an email to the press, not to me, but to the press first and then to me saying ‘it would not be productive to have a meeting until you agree the deal’.
“I want a contract and I want a meeting in a $50m offer, is that a lot to ask? What do you expect me to do? Just say ‘Yeah, that’s fine, we will take that, just show me a piece of paper and we will sign it.’
“They are bluffing and we smoked them out and it has been sweet doing it.
“At first I wasn’t sure whether it was serious, and there are people who do want to make the fight, but how can you take these people seriously when all they are interested in doing is talking on social media?
“Deals aren’t made on Instagram, they are made in a boardroom but they don’t want to see us in a board room. How can we talk about a fight over Instagram? It’s just weird.”
Hearn also revealed that the apparent lack of clarity has not been lost on Joshua himself, who is currently away in Morocco.
Following Friday’s weigh-in ahead for Saturday night’s boxing at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, Hearn added: “All Shirley is doing is pissing off Anthony Joshua.
“I’ve spoken to Joshua about it, an hour ago, he says they’re a joke. He said ‘where is the contract? What’s the deal?’
“He wants this fight but he can’t make it out. All he sees is Wilder on Instagram. He says the money is in the bag. What bag? What are you talking about? Is it down on the floor?
“They say they can’t send a contract until we agree the deal? What a load of bollocks.”
