Hearn wants Joshua to face Fury for world titles

By Boxing News - 11/30/2015 - Comments

hearn455By Scott Gilfoid: It didn’t take long for heavyweight Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to come out of the woodwork after Tyson Fury’s big win over Wladimir Klitschko last Saturday night at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Hearn is already thinking of a way to get Joshua, 26, a title shot against Fury for his IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles as soon as possible. Hearn would like for the 6’6”, 250lb Joshua to get a crack at Fury by next summer in 2016, but he doesn’t see that as too likely.

Fury will be facing Klitschko in a rematch in the first half of next year, and if Fury wins the fight, then he has the options of taking on WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, taking a couple of voluntary defenses, or facing Joshua. The money is with Wilder, not Joshua or the voluntary defenses.

Hearn seems to be assuming that Joshua will win his fight next month against Dillian Whyte on December 12th. Given that the fight is considered to be a 50-50 affair, I think it’s incredibly presumptuous of Hearn to think that Joshua will automatically be winning that fight. You have to remember that Whyte handled Joshua pretty well the last time he fought him.

You also have to remember that Joshua hasn’t fought any quality opposition for the last three years since the 2012 London Olympics, and a lot of boxing fans believe that Joshua was gifted the gold medal after appearing to lose two of his four fights in the competition. Some fans even believe that Joshua lost all four fights and was still given the gold medal.

The thing to focus on is that Joshua has faced absolutely horrid opposition since the Olympics in his 14 fights in the pros, and he could very well revert to form when he gets inside the ring with his first quality opponent in 3 years on December 12th.

“My strategy is to get Anthony Joshua to the heavyweight championship of the world as quickly as possible,” Hearn said to IFL TV. “Joshua may be ready [for Fury] by the summer but I don’t think that opportunity will come. Do we become mandatory? We’re #2 with two governing bodies. After we deal with Dillian Whyte [Dec. 12, London] then we’ll be looking at which way we go to the top,” said Hearn.

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Well, if Joshua tries to go through WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder to win a heavyweight world title, then he could be barking up the wrong tree, and that’s provided that he can even get past Whyte. Like I said, that’s no given that Joshua beats Whyte. I see it as a toss-up fight. Joshua has no finesse about him. He’s about as tactical as the late Joe Frazier in the way he goes straight after his opposition looking to mow them down from the start of his fights.

If Joshua uses a primitive caveman style like that against Wilder, then he’s going to get knocked out, because Wilder eats up fighters that come straight at him. The thing is Joshua is so heavy and muscular now that I don’t think he can box and move even if he wanted to.

At 250lbs and growing, Joshua is quickly turning into a modern day Primo Canera in my view, and Hearn is too young to realize it. Joshua says he doesn’t lift weights, and that the muscle he’s putting on it just coming from his normal gym workouts.

Whatever the case, he needs to get on a track and run that muscle off if he’s smart. I don’t care if Joshua isn’t lifting weights. He’s still put on a TON of muscle weight in a very, very short period of time. Joshua has packed 20 pounds of muscle in just two years as a pro. That’s kind of rare that you see someone put that much muscle on in a short period of time.

The thing is when does it stop? If Joshua had no control over him putting on 20 pounds of muscle in the last two years, then you can assume that he’ll have no further control over him adding another 20 pounds of muscle in the next two years or so.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think a 270 pound heavyweight is going to find much success in this day and age. And if Joshua keeps adding muscle, then it’s going to be really ridiculous. If Joshua is weighing 290 in the next four years, I don’t see him doing much other than turning into a basic 4-round fighter.

“Tyson has proved himself and now Anthony has to prove himself too. We are moving through the process at the right speed. Looking at the fight, I’d rather Anthony faced Wladimir – and that’s completely different to what I thought before!” Hearn said.

Fighting Whyte is only a case of Joshua partially proving himself if he wins that fight. The last time I checked, Whyte isn’t even ranked in the top 15. I’m just saying. If Joshua is to really prove himself, then he needs to beat Whyte, and then beat the likes of Erkan Teper, Alexander Povetkin and Carlos Takam. Those guys are top contenders in the division. Whyte is just a 2nd tier guy right now. Proving oneself normally involves a fighter beating 1st tier highly ranked completion, doesn’t it?

For that reason, I think Joshua’s proving grounds go far beyond just a fight against Whyte next month, or at least it should go beyond that.

I don’t think Joshua will lose a lot in terms of his rankings if he gets whipped by Whyte on December 12th. Like George Groves, I see the World Boxing Council only moving Joshua down two or three places in their top 15 rankings when/if Whyte beats Joshua. In other words, Joshua will be able to almost immediately start in where he left off after a loss to Whyte. It normally isn’t that way with fighters that lose in the top rungs of boxing, but my guess is the WBC won’t penalize Joshua at all if and when he loses to Whyte.



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