Aside from the mental games and verbal jabbing coming out of Joseph Parker’s camp, the WBO World heavyweight champion’s promoter David Higgins has confirmed that an agreement has been reached over the much discussed split with Anthony Joshua.
The two unbeaten fighters and their management have reportedly been negotiating details regarding revenue and other financial aspects of the fight for weeks. Proceedings were made public by Higgins and Parker after they felt disrespected by Hearn’s first offers.
According to ESPN, team Parker’s initial demand was 40 per cent but Matchroom would not budge. After a very public out cry and some social media tactics, the New Zealander’s have finally received a suitable deal which has been formally accepted by all parties involved.
“The fight has never been closer. We’re a lot closer now to a deal because we’ve had a major breakthrough, which is that the two camps have formally agreed on the split. The Joshua side made a small concession, and the Parker side has made a small concession,” commented Higgins in an interview with ESPN.
As always with the out spoken Higgins, he is contemplating making the final figure public.
“It’s between 30 and 35-ish percent for the Parker side. I’ll leave it at that for now, but it’s somewhere close to the middle of that. Maybe after Eddie and I talk about it, we will make the figure public,” told Higgins.
So far no official date or location has been announced, but there are many options in the spring.
“I hope that in early 2018 we could be in a position to announce the fight. March 24th, March 31st, April 7th as well are the three potential dates. Wales, London, other cities as well looking to host this fight,” told Hearn to Boxing Social.
But on top of the obvious UK locations such as Wembley or Cardiff, Higgins believes there is potential to host Joshua-Parker in Europe or even further.
“A couple of wild-card venues in Europe because Joshua is so big you could have tens of thousands of fans travel to another location in Europe for the fight.
“But you never know if a place like Saudi Arabia comes in and offers a $100 million to stage the fight,” added Higgins.
Speaking to ESPN, Higgins also revealed other matters that have been agreed upon with Hearn, such as drug testing and a rematch clause should Joshua lose.
“I think that’s fair. Should Parker win, there’d be a rematch, and I think that’s fair because, commercially, Joshua is the A-side of the fight,” told the Duco Events Promoter.
As mentioned before, it’s no secret that negotiations between the two camps have been turbulent at times, especially with Team Parker’s public antics.
.@anthonyfjoshua 65% & rematch not enough to unify? Believe your own hype? Bubble's gonna burst bro #BigGlassRobot@eddiehearn @d_higgins_duco #NeverBeenDroppedpic.twitter.com/HYVAVAtFj8
— Joseph Parker (@joeboxerparker) December 7, 2017
“Eddie and I get on well. I found him to be smart, and we have a banter and humor between us. He doesn’t have an ego problem. I like working with people like Eddie Hearn. Both sides have given concessions. We respect them.”
Hearn insists that these negotiations, despite all that has happened, have not caused any headaches and the proven promoter understands the battle Team Parker put up against Matchroom’s offers.
“No. Listen, at the end of the day David Higgins, Duco Events, Joseph Parker – they are World champions. They are not the biggest name in boxing. They don’t bring millions and millions of dollars of revenue to the table. But they are champion’s, they have what we want. It is a unification fight. It’s a massive fight. So they are not just going to take anything.
“They have been battling their side. They have been doing a great job and it’s going to be great fight between two undefeated World champions,” summarised Hearn.
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