WBO announces USYK is now Mandatory

[Enlightened-One]

The split was a joke that made it almost impossible for Matchroom to win the bids without making a huge loss as Whyte wasn't a PPV fighter at the time. Nobody in the UK would pay to what Pulev anyway.

If I remember correctly, Parker was his first PPV and that was announced shortly after the Pulev fight fell through.

Not sure what he was paid for Helenious and Browne but it wouldn't have been much more than he would have got for Pulev. So at the time a fair few eyebrows were raised (until the Parker fight was announced anyway).

In hindsight it was the correct call, he has earned millions and established himself as a respectable contender.

Beating Pulev wouldn't have made the Joshua fight happen any sooner anyway.

I agree with most of what you say, but it's important to consider the following facts:

• Epic Sports won the purse bid on the 24th May, 2018 for Dillian’s proposed bout against Kubrat Pulev, which was subsequently rejected by the Brit (due to the 25% split of the purse pot equating to him only being offered a measly $375K payday).

• And two months after that date, Whyte eventually headlined his second PPV event against Joseph Parker, with both fighters pocketing a guaranteed $1.31m.

• Dillian Whyte’s July bout against Oscar Rivas will be the fourth PPV event he’s headlined.

[keirw]

I agree with most of what you say, but it's important to consider the following facts:

• Epic Sports won the purse bid on the 24th May, 2018 for Dillian’s proposed bout against Kubrat Pulev, which was subsequently rejected by the Brit (due to the 25% split of the purse pot equating to him only being offered a measly $375K payday).

• And two months after that date, Whyte eventually headlined his second PPV event against Joseph Parker, with both fighters pocketing a guaranteed $1.31m.

• Dillian Whyte’s July bout against Oscar Rivas will be the fourth PPV event he’s headlined.

No question he has become a PPV headliner and can easily scoff at 6 figure paydays now, but at the time the Pulev fight was called he wasn't.

It is understandable that people were confused by his refusal to take the eliminator.

However, the IBF mandatory still won't be called for a while yet and he has had some big paydays since, so it has worked out for him.

But that doesn't mean that people were wrong to criticise him at the time, also the fact that he has become quite a big earner contributed to him turning down a fight with Joshua earlier this year.

[Enlightened-One]

No question he has become a PPV headliner and can easily scoff at 6 figure paydays now, but at the time the Pulev fight was called he wasn't.

It is understandable that people were confused by his refusal to take the eliminator.

However, the IBF mandatory still won't be called for a while yet and he has had some big paydays since, so it has worked out for him.

But that doesn't mean that people were wrong to criticise him at the time, also the fact that he has become quite a big earner contributed to him turning down a fight with Joshua earlier this year.

Fair enough, we’ll probably agree to disagree.

I feel that Whyte was low-balled for the Joshua bout, since Matchroom offered less-deserving contenders (Ortiz, Miller & Ruiz Jr.) millions more to take the same fight.

Luis Ortiz’s career-high payday is $500K, which he earned for the Deontay Wilder fight, but suddenly the Cuban deserves to earn millions more than Dillian Whyte to take the same Anthony Joshua bout?

It doesn’t make sense for Whyte to be capable of earning 25% more competing in non-title bouts against the likes of Dereck Chisora, than engaging in a much bigger global commercial event challenging for the unified world heavyweight championship against a fellow-Brit like Anthony Joshua.

I honestly feel that the reason why Eddie Hearn submitted the lowball offer to Whyte for the AJ bout, was for political reasons, to allow Matchroom and Joshua to dishonestly claim that 'The Body Snatcher' rejected the fight. The Matchroom boss must've surely known that Whyte would definitely reject the offer before he even submitted it.

Did you notice that when Luis Ortiz claimed he rejected the Joshua bout due to being low-balled, Eddie Hearn became aggressive and threatened to publicly disclose their written correspondences to debunk the Cuban’s dishonest claims?

However, when Dillian Whyte claimed the very same thing, Eddie Hearn didn’t dispute the Body Snatcher’s assertions and instead he suggested that he accept the purse being offered anyway, because beating AJ in front of 100,000 people at Wembley would have given Dillian the ownership of the “keys to the kingdom”.

If somebody offers to buy your house 25% less than market value, would you consider it a genuine proposition?

[greg]

----

If somebody offers to buy your house 25% less than market value, would you consider it a genuine proposition?

..in theory I might if I badly need cash and if I know that I can invest this money into a very profitable project..

[Finkel]

The ibf always pushes the issue.

Haha you are completely right. I was thinking more in line with them taking it on themselves to jump the queue rather than not force their mandatory.

But they will probably jump the queue as well

[Finkel]

I honestly feel that the reason why Eddie Hearn submitted the lowball offer to Whyte for the AJ bout, was for political reasons, to allow Matchroom and Joshua to dishonestly claim that 'The Body Snatcher' rejected the fight. The Matchroom boss must've surely known that Whyte would definitely reject the offer before he even submitted it.

I agree with this, but in addition it probably suited both parties.

It's obvious the Whyte has been going the WBC route as he saw Wilder as being the easier fight. IF he beats Wilder he would make silly money against Joshua in a unification.
IF he loses to Wilder the Joshua rematch is still there.

But
IF he lost to Joshua a second time, people would start to write him off as a legitimate contender, and he would see his earning potential plummet.

So it was always going to require an especially big offer to get him into the ring in Wembley in April. That fight would have been massive in the UK, so there was no excuse for the level of the offer.

But as I say, I suspect Whyte knew this as well...

[Ilya Muromets]

WBO announces USYK is now Mandatory

I don't get it, as much as I like him, why did they call him mandatory challenger?

Have they made a new date for his first fight at heavy?