Anthony Joshua to fight on September 12th, Mariusz Wach a possibility

By Boxing News - 06/30/2015 - Comments

joshua9913By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBC heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) has been yanked off the July 18th card in in order to put him on a card with greater visibility on September 12th on the Kell Brook card at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

The opponent that is being talked about for Joshua is 6’8” former world title challenger Mariusz Wach (31-1, 17 KOs). If the Joshua-Wach fight gets made, it’ll be a step up for Joshua, who has been fighting guys like Kevin Johnson, Jason Gavern and Rafael Love lately.

Wach clearly better than those guys, but not by much. We’re still taking about a flawed fighter with major problems with his game.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport has been complaining that it’s hard to find guys that will give the 6’6” Joshua rounds. He says his opposition is folding too easily, and he wants to find guys that can give him some badly needed work. He says that they are asking for more and more money to fight the 26-year-old, which would make sense given that they’re facing the 2012 Olympic super middleweight gold medalist.

Anytime a fighter faces an Olympic gold medalist, they expect to be paid more than if they were fighting just some average Joe. When you’re dealing with a fighter who is making more money than the average guy, then of course they’re going to want more money.

Of course, Hearn do it on the cheap by resisting paying for the better opposition, which appears to what he’s been doing since he turned pro in 2013, or he can open up his wallet and start getting some actual good fighters to face Joshua. That’s what Hearn should have done from day one, because when you have a gold medalist, even one that one his medal in a controversial fashion like Joshua, you match them up against good opposition from day one.

When you don’t do that and do it on the cheap by putting him in with awful opposition, then that sends a red flag that you either feel that your fighter has numerous flaws in his game or you’re too cheap to pay for the quality opponents for your fighter.

Wach, 31, has a nice four fight winning streak since losing a 12 round decision to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2012. Wach has wins since them against Konstantin Airich, Gbenga Oluokun, Samir Kurtagic and Travis Walker. In Wach’s last fight, he stopped Airich in the 6th round on June 19th.



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