Hearn’s unification offer for Joshua-Parker labeled an insult

David Higgins, the promoter for WBO heavyweight titlist Joseph Parker, says he’d like to see a unification bout with Anthony Joshua but promoter Eddie Hearn won’t made them an acceptable offer. Higgins tells ESPN that Hearn has offered them only 20% of the pot for the prospective fight, a number he deems disrespectful.

"I think Eddie is offering [Parker] 20 percent [of the purse] to kill the fight because he's worried his golden goose might get beaten," Higgins told ESPN. "I think he's offering that on purpose so he can go in another direction. He knows that we won't take 20 percent. It's an insult.”

Higgins goes on to mention that he’s not even seeking a 50-50 split, knowing that Joshua is a much bigger draw, but says the split needs to be more equitable than what’s been offered.

"I'm not saying a 50-50 split as we think Joshua deserves a bit more, but it certainly should be a more balanced ratio like that. We reached out to Hearn and have had no response.

"The ball is in Eddie Hearn's court. If he's genuine about wanting to unify, stop being greedy.”

Joshua is most recently coming off a relatively easy title defense against Carlos Takam last weekend, while Parker took a majority decision over Hughie Fury in a rather lackluster affair. A potential fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder is obviously the much bigger fight to make at heavyweight right now, but it appears that fight is going to be tediously negotiated into a major event for sometime next year.