By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight Anthony Joshua (8-0, 8 KOs) says he wants to win the British heavyweight title and then defend the strap. Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury will be fighting for the British strap on November 29th in their rematch at the ExCel Arena in London, UK.
Fury will likely beat Chisora for a 2nd time, and then go on to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. It’s highly unlikely that Fury will be bothered holding onto the British trinket because it’s a belt that Fury hasn’t talked a lot about wanting.
“I want the British title. It would be a great start,” Joshua said via IFL TV. “I would love the British belt and to defend it would be good.”
I’d be very, very surprised if Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn will park him at the British level and have him wasting time defending the British strap against the likes or Sam Sexton, Michael Sprott and Dereck Chisora for any length of time. I mean, Joshua will likely go after and win the British strap, but if his idea is to defend the strap 3 or more times, it would be a huge waste of time. Even going after the belt at all is a waste of time in my view.
Joshua will be fighting Denis Bakhtov (38-9, 25 KOs) in a scheduled 12 round bout on October 11th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The 34-year-old Bakhtov has lost 2 out of his last 5 fights, and he was recently easily stopped in 5 rounds by Manuel Charr last year in October. Bakhtov is pretty much at the same level as Joshua’s last opponent Konstantin Airich, who Joshua stopped in the 3rd round earlier this month on September 13th.
Joshua says he could be fighting on the undercard of the Fury vs. Chisora fight. He says that Michael Sprott’s name has been mentioned as a potential opponent in the near future.
Comments are closed.