ANTHONY JOSHUA’s rematch with Dillian Whyte is reportedly being scuppered by a sensational £10million payday demand.
The Brixton Body Snatcher was lined up as the second opponent of Joshua’s career rebuild after the former unified heavyweight champion’s scrappy win over Jermaine Franklin in April.
Negotiations over the bout – which is being targeted for August 12 – began earlier this month, but Whyte is unhappy with a reported £3m purse on offer for the domestic dust-up.
That’s according to No Smoke Sport, who claim the one-time WBC title challenger is “requesting a purse of around £10m” to renew his rivalry with AJ.
AJ promoter Eddie Hearn recently revealed that Whyte and his team branded their opening offer “unacceptable”.
The Matchroom Boxing chief told iFL TV: “So we spoke last night to his team and this morning.
“We made an offer, and they felt that offer was unacceptable.
“We may be too far out on the money to make that fight.”
Hearn is eager to have Joshua back in action in August ahead of a mouthwatering December dust-up with Deontay Wilder.
And he doesn’t want to deviate from those plans, so much so that alternative opponents are being eyed.
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He said: “We’re looking at two other opponents for August 12.
“The key for us, if we can’t make the Deontay Wilder fight is that it doesn’t have to be Dillian.
“AJ wants it, that’s the fight AJ wanted.”
The 44-year-old added: “If we’ve got the Wilder fight done, we can fight someone else from the top 15 on August 12.
“We still want a decent, proper fight to prepare for Deontay Wilder.
“But if we can’t get the Wilder fight done, then we need a much bigger fight on August 12, or we look at Tyson Fury in September.”
Joshua, 33, hasn’t set foot in the ring since his less-than-impressive points win over Franklin in April – his first outing since back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk.
Whyte, meanwhile, also faced Franklin in his last outing, which he won via a controversial majority decision verdict.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
