Joshua says no respect for Wladimir

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua says he won’t be giving any respect to former heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko this Saturday night. The heavily favored Joshua says the respect will be out the window when he gets Wladimir inside the ring on Saturday night at Wembley Stadium, in London, England.

Joshua is confident that he’s going to win the fight. One reason for that is Wladimir hasn’t won in 3 years, and is coming off of a loss in his last fight 2 years ago. Wladimir is old at 41, and his work rate has dropped in his last couple of fights. Is that because of the opponents he’s faced or due his age? I think many boxing fans would agree that it’s because of his age. He’s not the fighter that he was from 2000-2010, which are undoubtedly the best years of Wladimir’s career.

(Photo credit Esther Lin/SHOWTIME)

It’s a sporting event. Neither fighter has to respect one another. However, Joshua will need to have a certain amount of respect for Wladimir’s still lethal punching power. If Joshua walks into one of Wladimir’s left hooks, he may wish he had respected him a little more.

“Trust me, when leather starts landing on your jaw that respect goes out the window,” Joshua said to Sky Sports News HQ. “It is a fight. The best man wins. That is what it comes down to. This is what we do. Wladimir has been doing it for so many years and I have been doing it for so many years.”

The punching power of these two giant heavyweights is pretty much equal. Joshua lifts a lot of weights, but it hasn’t really done a lot in terms of increasing his punching power. He’s still essentially the same fighter he was power-wise since turning pro in 2013. Wladimir has an equal chance of knocking Joshua out if he can work up the nerve to throw his power punches on Saturday. Wladimir looked afraid in his last 2 fights to throw power punches. He can’t fight like that on Saturday night if he wants to have a chance of beating Joshua.

27-year-old Joshua will have the home advantage as well as the youth advantage. Wladimir has the experience, mobility and the boxing advantage. Joshua is a decent boxer, but mostly runs over his over-matched opposition with his size and power. Joshua hasn’t ever shown that he can out-box an opponent.

That’s not his style of fighting. He’s more interested in knocking them out as quickly as possible. As big as Joshua is with his heavily muscular frame, it’s a good idea for him to make sure he knockout his opponents fast. He doesn’t need to have his opposition hanging around until the 11th and 12th rounds where they can test his stamina. It’s especially important for Joshua to try and knock Wladimir out early, because if he’s still around late in the fight, he might be able to knock him out.

“Victory is written all over me right now because I feel great,” said Joshua. “I feel positive, I feel confident and that is all that matters.”

Joshua should feel confident. He’s facing an old guy that hasn’t fought in a long time in 41-year-old Wladimir. Things could be different if Joshua were facing Luis Ortiz, Joseph Parker or Deontay Wilder. Those are active heavyweights that haven’t been sitting on the shelf for the last 2 years like Wladimir has. They’re also younger than Wladimir.

Joshua needs a win over Wladimir to take him to the next level to make him a more popular fighter in the UK and worldwide. His promoter Eddie Hearn wants him to become a PPV attraction in the U.S like he is in the UK. For that to happen, Joshua will need to beat as many recognizable fighters to the casual boxing fans in the States as possible. Wladimir is known by a lot of fans in the U.S. If Joshua can beat Klitschko, he would be taking a giant step in becoming a star outside of the UK. He would still need to beat fighters like Ortiz, Wilder, Parker, Tyson Fury, Hughie Fury and Alexander Povetkin for him to have a chance of branching out to become a worldwide star.

Joshua hasn’t faced the quality heavyweights yet. Wladimir may not be a quality heavyweight at this point due to his age, but the casual boxing fans won’t know that. They’ll likely give Joshua the same credit he would get if he were to have fought Wladimir in his prime, because they won’t know that he’s 41 and hasn’t won a fight in 3 years.

The casual fans will see Wladimir still in his prime. That’s why it was a great move by Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to select Wladimir for Joshua to fight instead of someone still in their prime that could potentially beat him like Wilder, Ortiz or Parker. This is how boxing is. The promoters select older fighters to match against their younger guys so that it can give the boxing fans the perception that they’re better than they actually are. We don’t know how good Joshua is because he’s been getting matched against vulnerable fighters like Dominic Breazeale, Dillian Whyte, Charles Martin and Eric Molina.

“It’s going to be a great night on Saturday night. It will be an amazing fight, I’m all hyped and excited and AJ is as well, I’m sure,” said Wladimir to skysports.com. “There’s no mind games here. I’m here and I’m ready to rumble.

It’s a good change of pace to see the absence of mind games and trash talking for the Joshua-Klitschko fight. These guys aren’t going to play intimidation games. They want to prove themselves inside the ring. It should be a great fight for as long as it lasts. Joshua has a good chance of winning as long as he doesn’t get caught with anything big from Wladimir. Joshua needs to try and get Wladimir out of there quickly because the longer the fight lasts the better the chance he’ll have of landing one of his own big power shots.