Eddie Hearn says, 'Wilder should retire if he doesn’t take Fury rematch'

[Ruthless-RKO]

“I am the only one that has put this in writing that the deal is agreed,” said Hearn to IFL TV on the Joshua vs. Fury deal for 2021. “So I have already written to their team saying, ‘Just to let you know, ‘we have agreed to the following deal,’ which is agreed.

“I didn’t actually get a reply, but I believe because they do want the fight. So we’re ready for the fight. I saw the comments about December. It’s all very well saying, ‘Well, if that doesn’t happen in December, I’ll fight you now.’

“We will fight you in December. If the world is ready for that fight, and these offers that are coming in are legit for that period in December, then we don’t have a problem going into that fight.

“But he’s [Fury] under contract for another fight. No, we’re not under contract yet, but we have to agree to terms with Pulev now. We probably will,” said Hearn.

“We’re [Joshua] probably a lot freer to take the fight in December than he [Fury] is,” said Hearn. “Whether that is to goad us or to challenge us, we accept that challenge to fight in December if you don’t have to fight Deontay Wilder. But you do have to fight Deontay Wilder.

"If Deontay Wilder doesn’t take that rematch, he should retire from boxing. What’s the point? You’ve been a world heavyweight champion, and now you’ve lost and your bums gone.

“You’ve bottled the rematch, and he won’t. He’s got more about him than that. But he’s worryingly quiet, isn’t he? But we don’t have a problem going into the fight now [with Fury],” said Hearn.

“I just don’t believe one, that the world is geared up for that fight, and two, that he [Fury] can get out of the contract [with Wilder] that he’s in. In terms of AJ wanting the Fury fight.”

Hearn denies milking AJ

“On one hand, I’m a money-grabbing mother-f****. And on the other hand, I don’t want the fight that’s going to make me more money than any other fight in the world. So get it right. It isn’t about milking AJ, the cash cow,” said Hearn.

“We have two fights that we’ve already written to him [Fury] and agreed. But also, I’m a bit confused because I’m being told that the only person I should negotiate the fight with is Bob Arum.

“But on the other hand, they’re saying, ‘Yeah, come sit down us.’ I spoke to Bob Arum on Friday, and I have another conversation with Bob Arum today. I’m going to say to him, ‘If you want to do the fight in December and we can talk to the relevant parties in terms of where this fight can be staged, we don’t have a problem with that.

“But we’ll sign for it in December if you want. We’ll sign for it in April or May, but we’ll sign for that fight now if you don’t believe us. Yes,” said Hearn when asked if he believes that the fight between Joshua and Fury would be taking place in December if not for Wilder.

AJ would vacate the IBF title to face Fury

“We would have to drop the IBF belt. We don’t really want to do that, but I promise you when I say if AJ feels he’s f**** around by governing bodies or fighters themselves holding him for ransom, that belt will go,” said Hearn.

“If we have to drop the WBO belt, then we worry about that then. But AJ doesn’t have a problem with going into that fight [Fury] next. But he understands that his obligation is to fight Pulev.

“If he doesn’t want to do it, then he loses his belt. Fury’s obligation contractually is to fight Deontay Wilder, and I don’t believe Deontay Wilder is going to let that fight go. If he lets that fight go, he’ll never get another shot at a world title until he’s mandatory.”

[IRONFIST]

AKA Fast Eddie saying : "Who else can shield my meal ticket/golden boy Joshua from getting battered by Fury? Whyte has let me down on that front..."

[Ruthless-RKO]

There's a lot more on the video that just saying Wilder should reture BTW.

TBH, Why should he retire?

He's lost one fight.

He's entertaining, has KO power to end a fight at any time.

I still want to see him fight AJ, Whyte and a number of other boxers.

[Enlightened-One]

"If Deontay Wilder doesn’t take that rematch, he should retire from boxing. What’s the point? You’ve been a world heavyweight champion, and now you’ve lost and your bums gone.” said Hearn.

You know what?

I think Eddie Hearn is probably right.

If Wilder refrains from enforcing the immediate rematch clause, then he’s going to be locked out of the heavyweight title picture for at least 2½ years.

AJ and Fury will fight twice. The winner will also have to perform their mandatory defences. And none of those parties are PBC guys.

And I don’t fancy the chances of Top Rank/ESPN/BT or Matchroom/DAZN/Sky helping to resurrect the career for a PBC/Showtime/Fox rival.

Wilder’s commercial value was never that great to begin with. He’s definitely not a big enough name to motivate the staging of a cross-promotional event (without possessing one of the titles).

The handlers of the eventual winner of AJ and Wilder are inevitably going to do their utmost to retain ownership of all four heavyweight titles.

We already saw this happen during Wilder’s WBC title reign, when the vast majority of Deonay’s opponents were fellow PBC guys (i.e. Bermane Stiverne [twice], Eric Molina, Artur Szpilka, Chris Arreola, Gerald Washington, Luis Ortiz [twice] & Dominic Breazeale).

Anyone recall the time when Wilder even went so far as to advise Whyte to join the PBC, as he claimed it’ll help Dillian get closer to his WBC title shot than anything else the Brit does?

And I’m pretty sure Wilder’s handlers will appreciate the consequences of ‘The Bronze Bomber’ refraining from enforcing the Fury rematch, which is the reason why I don’t think it’ll happen.

I feel that Fury will be forced to face Wilder again for a third time, even if here is no commercial justification to stage a contest that fight fans don’t really want to see.

[Fightnight Scores]

For me Joshua vs Wilder is still the most exciting fight to be had, possibly throughout all divisions.
Of course it has lost some of the allure it had a few years ago when they were both unbeaten champions blizzing through everyone put in front of them. But it is still an explosive fight even more so that they've each been taken out by lesser punchers than each other!

[greg]

..I don't get this logic...a boxer in his prime earning millions of dollars with a respectable record of 41-1-1 should retire because his plans don't coincide with those of Eddy Hearn?

[Onetimeonly]

Eddie should retire if he can't deliver a dazn fight from American soil this year.

[margaret thatcher]

Maybe Ed's pulling a trick here, this comment will bring out the defiance in Wilder, who then doesn't take the rematch but fights on anyway rather than retiring like Ed said. And then omg Fury-AJ is set

[bobcatbox]

Eddie talking rubbish. Getting some attention for it as usual. Don’t hate the player; hate the game.

As for the merits of the statement, under no circumstances should Wilder retire unless he suffers a horrible beating at the hands of Fury from which he physically would not fully recover. The potential fight with Joshua is still a great fight regardless of the outcome of Wilder-Fury III or Joshua-Fury, and there’s still at least two years to make it.

Top five other fights I’d love to see him in:

1. Joseph Parker
2. Michael Hunter
3. Dillian Whyte
4. Andy Ruiz, Jr.
5. Oleksander Usyk

I’d even be up for a good beatdown of Adam Kownacki.

[Tevfik1907]

There's a lot more on the video that just saying Wilder should reture BTW.

TBH, Why should he retire?

He's lost one fight.

He's entertaining, has KO power to end a fight at any time.

I still want to see him fight AJ, Whyte and a number of other boxers.

Let's look at the prime example; Ali's career, was fighting with Holmes and Berbick for money after the retirement really necessary? That only damaged his legacy, his previous all 3 loses were avenged (Norton, Frazier and Spinks), but not those 2. Wilder is retiring with only 1 lost is not bad, because he knock down Tyson Fury twice in their first fight, and if he was a little more lucky, he could win that fight, but if he accepts another 2 fights and loses those fights too, that wouldn't look good for Wilder's career.

Wilder probably knows he can't win against Tyson Fury, and we know AJ won't fight him without a belt on the table, they didn't even fight when Wilder had the belt, so he can really consider that option.

[gregregegg]

Think its more the point of if he wont take the rematch it means he thinks he cant win, and if you have been world champ for years and are rich, why keep going if you dont think you can beat the best.

Still has some big fights left if he wants to stay on though. Id still love wilder vs AJ, Whyte, Parker, Usyk, DDD, Joyce, Efe (in 2 years), Hrgovic, Chisora, Bakoli, at Heavyweight..
And he could chose to go for a cruiser world title not that i think he would, but he could, he knocked ortiz at 214 and "drew" with fury at 212?.. both of witch are cruiser weight size..
fornicate he could even chose to just spend the next 5 years knocking C grade guys on mediocre main events if he wanted to...

plenty of options, But they are all drenched in medicrety compared to Beating fury, Then beating AJ, and retireing with 100+million, all the belts and a suprising All Time Great career...

[Enlightened-One]

There’s zero chance of Wilder refraining from exercising his immediate rematch clause with Fury.