Anthony Joshua has been warned that he could lose out on a whopping £60million payday for his fight with Deontay Wilder if he loses to Dillian Whyte.
The British duo will rematch on August 12 at the O2 Arena in London, where their first professional fight took place back in 2015 before either man had fought for a world title. And should Joshua get through with the same result as he did the first time around, he has a deal worth a career-high amount for a super-fight with Wilder in Saudi Arabia.
However, there is no rematch clause for the August showdown, meaning that the two-time heavyweight champion could end up in no man's land with a defeat. Saudi officials won't offer him anything near the same deal, and the Wilder fight could fall to the wayside entirely.
"I don't know how the Whyte fight goes," Hearn told TalkSPORT on Friday. "But we've been told categorically that the deal on the table is not the deal if he loses to Dillian Whyte. They didn't want him to fight Dillian Whyte. It was almost like, 'Please, don't fight Dillian Whyte. You don't need to. We've got this fight in December.' But AJ was like, 'No. I want to fight'.
"If he wins on August 12, he'll go into the Deontay Wilder fight with loads of momentum and again it's just adding to that incredible CV. I think he should be praised for the fact he wants to give you a real fight instead of just a tick-over fight until he fights Deontay Wilder – this is very dangerous."
Whyte could catapult himself back into contention for further big fights with a win after two lack lustre outings against Tyson Fury and Jermaine Franklin. He was dominated and knocked out cold by his fellow Brit in his long-awaited mandatory challenge at Wembley Stadium before winning a razor-close decision to Franklin at the OVO Arena Wembley.
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He initially wasn't keen on the deal offered for a fight with Joshua but has now accepted terms including the removal of a one-sided rematch clause that would have tied him into a second fight with his rival. The bout is something of a trilogy, with the pair having met as youngsters in the amateur ranks when Whyte handed his fellow Londoner his first defeat.
"We had meetings last week with the Saudis," Hearn added. "Obviously, that’s one of the biggest fights in boxing, and he wanted to fight in the interim. You know, he’s been working with Derrick James, he wanted to have that fight and he was insistent it was Dillian Whyte. I wasn’t over the moon because I know it’s dangerous.
"It’s a fight that is built off emotion, they don’t like each other. You saw what happened last time at the O2, it’s going to be an absolute firefight on August 12. That’s why it’s so dangerous. You’ve got that Deontay Wilder fight in December, he could’ve just waited and had an easy, gimme fight at the O2 – but he’s decided to roll the dice."
