Joshua to fight in October or November says Hearn

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua will be back inside the ring in October or November to defend his IBF/WBA heavyweight titles, says his promote Eddie Hearn. He expects Joshua to take a vacation soon, though he hasn’t said anything about wanting to take a break. Hearn is plotting the possible opponents, which range from a rematch with Wladimir Klitschko to a fight against Kubrat Pulev. Tyson Fury is also a possibility for the 2-year-old Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) but that fight isn’t likely to take lace due to the huge amount of weight that Fury still needs to lose before he can consider getting back inside the ring.

The last thing Joshua needs is to take an opponent that is 100 pounds’ overweight, making the fight look like a money grab to the British boxing public.

It would be nice to see Hearn take some REAL risks with Joshua by throwing him inside the ring with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder or Luis “King Kong” Ortiz in his next fight to see if he’s the real deal. Unfortunately, I don’t see either of those fights happening, especially the Ortiz fight. Hearn has been totally cool to putting Joshua in with the highly technical Ortiz.

I get the sense that Hearn is waiting for the 38-year-old Ortiz to age more before he finally outs Joshua in with him. It might work in reverse for Hearn unfortunately. With Joshua seemingly packing on more and more muscle with each fights, he might end up bulking up to 270, and wind up being too muscle-bound and slow to beat Ortiz. I think that’s the case right now. I don’t think that Hearn is going to let Ortiz anywhere near Joshua until 2018, and even then, it might not happen unless the World Boxing Association forces the issue.

If they order the Joshua-Ortiz fight, I can see Joshua vacating if Ortiz is still fighting at a high level. Hearn has already given a not so subtle hint in talking about the sanctioning bodies ordering Joshua to make title defenses against his mandatory challengers by saying that they’re dealing with the biggest star in world boxing. I got the sense that Hearn isn’t so eager to put Joshua in the ring with Ortiz. He’s the only dangerous mandatory challenger that Joshua has. Pulev, 36, is slow, hittable and has very little pop in his punches, as we saw in his recent win over Kevin Johnson.

“Speaking to [Joshua’s trainer] Rob McCracken yesterday – October, November, is probably the kind of date you will see Anthony Joshua back in the ring,” said Hearn to Sky Sports News HQ. “[There are] various options. You’ve got the mandatory situation to deal with, with [Kubrat] Pulev.”

It’s interesting that Hearn isn’t mentioning Luis Ortiz as one of Joshua’s options. Gee, I wonder why that is. I smell fear.

Whether Hearn wants to admit it or not, Joshua’s next fight will likely be against the 41-year-old Klitschko, who will be sharper and possibly heavier than he was last Saturday night in knocking Joshua to the canvas and bouncing him around the ring until the 11th round. Why in the heck would Wladimir have bothered in having a rematch clause put in his contract with Joshua if he wasn’t planning on executing it? Wladimir has already said he wants the rematch, so Hearn needs to accept that reality as real for AJ. There have been a couple of instances during Wladimir’s career where he didn’t push for a rematch. When he lost to Ross Puritty in 1998 and Corrie Sanders in 2003, Wladimir didn’t push for a rematch against either of those guys, and you could understand why. At that time in Wladimir’s career, he didn’t know how to deal with the fighting styles of Sanders and Purity. They were both big hitters with good chins, and a style of fighting that was too tough for Wladimir. In both cases, Wladimirs steel-chinned brother Vitali Klitschko avenged his losses to them. Unfortunately for Wladimir, Vitali is no longer fighter, because if he was still in his prime, I think he would be facing Joshua to avenge Wladimir’s loss.

I don’t know if Hearn would let Vitali fight Joshua though. Just because you want to fight Joshua doesn’t mean you get to. Look at Luis Ortiz, Deontay Wilder and David Haye. All three of those guys have wanted to fight Joshua for some time, and none of them have been given the opponent to fight him despite the huge amount of interest from the boxing world in those fights. Speaking about Corrie Sanders, I would favor him over Joshua if he were in the same form he was in the night he beat Wladimir. The southpaw Sanders was in excellent shape and was lighting Wladimir up with left hands. I think Joshua would be mowed down by Sanders. It’s too bad that Sanders’ career never took off after his upset win over Wladimir, because he had so much potential. He was a real talent.

“So, [we will] just take our time, assess the situation, keep doing all the things we have been doing to get to this stage, because they have all been successful,” said Hearn.

I don’t think it’s going to take more than a week or two before Wladimir lets Hearn know that he’s executed the rematch clause to fight Joshua. It’s a good fight. I don’t see what the problem is for Hearn. I mean, he’s been blabbering about how he thinks that Joshua is the biggest star in world boxing. If that’s truly the case, then Joshua should be able to beat him a second time. But if Joshua is just a bodybuilder with a career built off hype over mostly wins over old guys like Wladimir, then he might not get past him in the rematch.

It’s just as well for Hearn and the boxing world to find out now if Joshua is an guy without the talent to be at the top of the heavyweight division. Hearn could then turn around and sign someone good like 2016 Olympic silver medalist Joe Joyce and start building him up to be the next star in the heavyweight division.

I’d be very surprised if Wladimir chooses not to take the rematch with Joshua. There’s so much money for Wladimir to make in a second fight against Joshua. But he also showed that he has enough left in the tank to beat him. Why wouldn’t Wladimir want to fight Joshua for a second time? Hearn says he wants to take his time to decide who Joshua should fight in October or November, but I think the decision will be made for him by the 6’6” Wladimir. Instead of Hearn dragging his heels about the Joshua-Klitschko rematch, he should embrace it and see it as a good thing.

At least the boxing world will be able to see if Joshua if a fake or not. Right now, there are a lot of fans that think that Joshua was royally exposed last Saturday night. Joshua is the guy that Hearn has been flapping his gums about 24/7 lately, saying he’s going to carry the sport for another 10 years. But do you honestly think that the fighter that struggled BADLY against Wladimir and had to get up off the canvas in the 6th is a fighter that can carry boxing for the next 10 years? Joshua looked flawed, shaky and incredibly vulnerable against the 41-year-old Klitschko.

Instead of Joshua carrying the sport for 10 years, he looks like someone that has a short shelf life of 4-6 months. There’s nothing wrong with Joshua being a guy isn’t built to last. Look at Joshua’s physique. He doesn’t have the body for someone with staying power at the top of the division in my opinion. The guys that last are usually the more athletic looking types like Bernard Hopkins and Joe Louis. I don’t know of any body builder look alike fighters in boxing that were able to last for a long time.