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Wilder promoter confirms rumours – Joshua has 24 hours to respond to $50m offer, Hearn skeptical

Written by Keeran Rajan on 26th April 2018.

Deontay Wilder’s promoter, Shelly Finkel has made the move to confirm the rumours circulating around the boxing world tonight.

Finkel claims a $50 million deal has been presented to Anthony Joshua to accept within the next 24 hours.

“We want [Joshua] to fight Deontay in his next fight and we offered him $50m,” he told Sky Sports.

Financed and backed by the powerful PBC business mogul, Al Haymon who famously managed Floyd Mayweather Jr as they broke new ground in terms of possible earnings in boxing history, Finkel is very confident everything is in place for Joshua to accept the deal.

“If he accepts it, it will be there. Al Haymon and I have never not delivered what we’ve offered.

“We were offered $12.5m (£8.8m) to fight him but we have offered four times that. If he says he is not going to take $50m it means he doesn’t really want to fight him next.

“It was $50m against 50 per cent. He said, ‘get me $50m against 50 per cent and I’ll take it the next day, I swear’.”

It is believed the deal stipulates that Wilder’s team will have full control over where the fight takes place. However, Finkel was quick to add that doesn’t necessarily mean the fight happens in America.

Hearn has also offered his response to the recent developments. It is fair to say the Matchroom promoter is skeptical that the American team can deliver on their promises and that this scenario is little more than a PR stunt.

If formal paperwork is provided regarding the deal it will then be placed under serious consideration, Hearn added.

“We got an email from Deontay Wilder’s personal email address offering us a 50-50 split with a guarantee of $50m,” Hearn told Sky Sports.

“He said that in an interview Anthony said. ‘give us £50m and we will sign tomorrow’. They have asked us to give them written acceptance of the deal by tomorrow.

“With all due respect to Deontay Wilder, I don’t believe he has $50m. However, if they actually send some formal paperwork and a contract along with further details on how this money will be secured, we will definitely have to take this seriously.

“We have a meeting on Friday, so let’s see how real this is.”

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