Wilder: Joshua fight will have a 50/50 split

Whatever the old deal was is now off the table, claims WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Wilder had previously accepted a flat-fee offer of $15M to face Anthony Joshua in the U.K., but after that round of negotiations fell apart over contract details (or lack thereof), Wilder says he’ll be standing firm from now on.

“I think the fight will be made,” Wilder told Premier Boxing Champions. “Just that this time around when you come to the table, you’ll have to come correct. This will be a 50-50 fight. And that’s the bottom line.”

Wilder continued by saying that his team tried their darnedest to make a Joshua fight for this fall, but that once Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn sent them a contract that had no date or venue for the fight he knew it wasn’t made in good faith.

“We’ve tried everything... I’m not going to sign a contract that doesn’t have a date, that doesn’t have a venue,” he said.

So while there’s still the prospect for Wilder and Joshua to meet down the line, perhaps next spring, they’ll both be moving on to other opponents in the interim. Joshua has been expected to announce a fight against Alexander Povetkin, although that still hasn’t been made official, and Wilder has been rumored to be taking on Dominic Breazeale for some time now.