Eddie Hearn to offer Deontay Wilder £6m to face Dillian Whyte in New York

Hearn is ready to hand Wilder nearly four times more than he has ever earned to put his WBC belt on the line against Whyte before Christmas

Eddie Hearn will this week offer WBC champion Deontay Wilder more than £6m to face Dillian Whyte in New York before the year is out.

The Jamaica-born Londoner dropped former WBO heavyweight king Joseph Parker twice en route to a unanimous decision victory at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday to put his name firmly in the frame for a world title tilt.

A 13 April rematch with British rival Anthony Joshua, who he beat in the amateurs but lost to in the professional ranks, at Wembley is possible but it is certain that the ‘Bodysnatcher’ will look to box again before that date.

And Whyte, who has now won eight in a row since the night of his seventh-round stoppage at the hands of Joshua in December 2015, has no intention of taking an easy fight.

Instead his promoter Hearn is ready to hand Wilder nearly four times more than he has ever earned to put his WBC belt on the line against Whyte before Christmas.

Hearn said: “I’d probably go up to $7m or $8m for Deontay Wilder to fight Dillian Whyte now. I’ll be making Wilder an offer this week for Dillian Whyte again.

“We could do it in America, we could do it in Brooklyn.

”Wilder seems to be worried about coming to the UK so we will do it in Brooklyn. It will make fortunes for the pair of them.”

Whyte, the current holder of the lightly-regarded WBC ‘silver’ title, is ranked No 1 by the WBC but the governing body named Dominic Breazeale, himself a former Joshua victim, as mandatory challenger for Wilder.

Dillian Whyte saw off Joseph Parker at The O2 in London (Getty)

However, with no agreement in place for that the two Americans to clash, Hearn is hoping his latest offer will be too much to turn down for 40-0 Wilder, whose highest purse to date was the $2.1m he banked for fighting Luis Ortiz in March.

Matchroom boss Hearn has already made multiple big-money offers for Wilder to face Whyte but believes Saturday’s fight, during which the winner himself was floored in the final round, may tempt the Alabama native into accepting their latest bid.

Hearn added: “Wilder will want to fight October or November. I know everyone is like ‘oh who to believe’ but they are painful people to deal with.

“Why wouldn’t he fight Dillian Whyte? He must look at that last round and think, ‘Yeah’. Without that last round he probably thinks ‘He’s a handful’ but that last round showed... Wilder is a huge puncher so he will think it’s an easy fight and he gets $7m or $8m for it.”

Hearn’s priority remains to arrange a history-making unification between Joshua, should he beat Alexander Povetkin on 22 September, and Wilder at Wembley on 13 April, which would produce the first heavyweight to hold all four major titles at once.

Wilder will line up against Whyte if he accepts Hearn’s offer (Getty)

However, he believes that Whyte did enough against Parker to secure a rematch with Joshua, should he fail to tempt Wilder into taking the fight.

“Dillian has just beaten Parker convincingly,” Hearn said. “He put him down and it was only the end that made everyone go, ‘Oh wow’.

“I thought he was in control of the fight, much heavier hands, he drained the energy of Parker.

“Parker was holding non-stop and Dillian was being rough, he does that and he drains you. That is what happened to Parker.

“Of course the British public want Joshua against Deontay Wilder but if that doesn’t happen then there is only one other fight they want: Whyte.

Joshua vs Wilder is the fight everyone wants to see (Getty)

“That won’t be until April though so Whyte has to fight in the meantime.

“Whyte is a big fight for AJ. It’s massive but I would like Dillian Whyte to fight Wilder.

“Wilder hasn’t got an opponent for November. We could do that on DAZN, on Sky Box Office.

“Dillian will fight in November or December. Dereck Chisora is a big fight. Everything is held up. If Wilder doesn’t want to fight Dillian then we have to look at Chisora or Jarrell Miller.”