Parker Willing To Take 35% For Joshua Fight

In a week where Joseph Parker and his management publicly decried a “low” offer from Eddie Hearn, the WBO heavyweight champion is willing to budge on his financial position to fight IBF, IBO, WBA champion Anthony Joshua in a high stakes unification.

There are ongoing negotiations to stage that fight in the first quarter of the new year.

In several recent interviews, Parker and his promoter, David Higgins, were pretty firm on requesting a 60-40 split in Joshua’s favor. They claimed that the initial offer presented by Eddie Hearn, promoter for Joshua, was more of an 80-20 split.

But now the numbers are coming together, and the gap is shrinking between their positions.

According to Parker, he’s ready to drop his position and take 35% of the financial pot to make the Joshua fight happen.

“There is improvements on the offer. It keeps creeping up. I think it’s nearly where we want it to be… I’m willing to take 35 if they’re willing to give it.”

The two sides will continue negotiating over the next few days, hoping to get a deal done before the end of the year. The fight, if finalized, would likely come down on a date in March or April – in a stadium venue somewhere in the UK.

“Everyone has to negotiate what they are happy with, but there is no loss of respect and I still respect him, and he is doing good things over that part of the world,” said Parker to Sky Sports.

“I think he was aware of the deal that they offered. I believe [promoter] Eddie Hearn keeps Anthony Joshua up to date with what’s happening in negotiations and who he is talking to. Twitter is one way to sort of make it happen. If we didn’t go on Twitter, then we wouldn’t be getting their attention at the moment. It’s part of the game, you’ve got to enjoy a little bit of banter on social media, but hopefully we can get the deal done in the background.”