Who would?ve thought eight and a half years ago, when Deontay Wilder was flailing away at 400 lb. Dustin ?The Worm? Nichols in a Hattiesburg, Mississippi night club, that there?d be a nine-figure bidding war for the exclusive rights to the Alabama ?Bronze Bomber??
Yet, here we are, days away from a decision that will set Wilder for life economically and, possibly, turn the boxing world upside down.
As this is being written, Wilder and his people?including adviser Al Haymon?are preparing to meet with DAZN?s executive chairman John Skipper (in a sit-down orchestrated around DAZN?s Eddie Hearn, due to the bad blood between Hearn and Team Wilder) to discuss a multi-fight deal that would reportedly pay the reigning WBC heavyweight titlist more than $20 million per fight. The proposal would also deliver a shot at unification against IBF/WBA/WBO champ Anthony Joshua in the second fight of the deal.
This overture from the streaming service comes shortly after Top Rank?s recent offer of a two-fight deal which, pulling from the heavy ESPN coffers, would?ve brought Wilder $12.5 million for his first bout and an undisclosed sum for what was surely to be a PPV rematch with lineal champ Tyson Fury.
Meanwhile, current home base Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), which has output deals with Showtime and Fox, is being forced to ride this wave of Wilder interest. The 33-year-old knockout artist has already gone on record as saying that he?s a ?free agent? looking to go ?where the money is? and those quotes, which made headlines in the wake of Fury landing a (reportedly) $100 million deal with Top Rank/ESPN, had to have the business people at PBC/Showtime/Fox scrambling for some sort of answer/response/comeback/counter-offer/treading-water-proposal to keep their key piece to the heavyweight puzzle.
The folks at PBC responded to the Top Rank/ESPN offer by moving Wilder?s upcoming May 18 title defense against Dominic Breazeale from Showtime to Showtime pay-per-view in a stop-gap effort to match the money being offered to him. It?s questionable whether they?d been willing and/or able to match the huge money being laid at Wilder?s feet elsewhere.
In the middle of this came an offer from Anthony Joshua?s promoter Eddie Hearn for a multi-fight deal that would pay Wilder $15 million for his first bout and then a guaranteed minimum of $30 million for an Anthony Joshua fight. But, given the animosity between the two sides involved, this effort was never even acknowledged by Wilder or his team.
All of this movement has Wilder counting dollars and weighing offers.
?I?ve got a lot of things going on,? Wilder told ThaBoxingVoice . ?A lot of good things going on actually?I?m going to make the best decision for myself, for my family and for my career and we?re going to move forwards with that.?
A year ago, the only route to big money was through the UK?s Anthony Joshua. And when negotiations for the Joshua fight fell through, it looked as though Wilder would stay where he was as a modest-earning WBC champ fighting through the best opposition made available to him.
Now, following the Fury signing, a war has broken out over any and all available talent in the heavyweight division and the fact of the matter is that Fury and Joshua desperately need Wilder as a marquee opponent. With the bridge being too far apart between direct business rivals ESPN and DAZN, it only stands to reason that Wilder, as someone without any direct, formal promotional or network ties, would be courted so aggressively.
If Wilder does pack his bags and signs a deal with DAZN or ESPN, it?ll make the PBC preference for not tying their fighters down with promotional obligations look like a major misstep and it?ll have the PBC network partners perhaps pushing for changes in establishing that their fighters are ?their? fighters.
Whatever the case, it looks as though the heavy-handed banger from Tuscaloosa will finally be making that step towards the ?generational wealth? he likes to talk about.
