Joshua picks Fury to beat Wladimir, Wilder over Arreola

By Boxing News - 07/03/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) still doesn’t know who his next opponent will be in November or December, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be his IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker. In the meantime, Joshua gave his two cents on the heavyweight clashes matching WBC champion Deontay Wilder vs. challenger Chris Arreola on July 16, and the rematch between IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Joshua picks Wilder to beat the 35-year-old Arreola, and Fury to defeat the 40-year-old Wlladimir a second time. Joshua believes that Arreola will be a good test for Wilder to see where he’s at.

I don’t agree with Joshua, but we’ll find out soon enough because the fight between the two heavyweights is a little over two weeks away for their bout at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Arreola can test him. Wilder has been tested a few times by (Johann) Duhaupas, (Eric) Molina and (Bermane) Stiverne,” said Joshua to Ringtv.com. “I think it’ll be a good fight because Arreola has the type of style where can slip punches and throw the hook and so on. Despite that, I still pick Wilder to win the fight.”

Wilder, 6’7”, will be completely ready for what Arreola brings to the table on July 16. Wilder’s last opponent Artur Szpilka, is arguably a younger and better version of Arreola. Szpilka gave Wilder some badly needed experience in dealing with a guy that pressures and likes to throw hooks the way that Arreola does. I think with the experience that Wilder gained from that fight, he’s going to make easy work of Arreola.

It almost sounds like Joshua is coming from up high when he gives his appraisal of the Wilder-Arreola fight, as if he’s the No.1 fighter and he’s talking about lesser heavyweights. I don’t’ agree with Joshua about this being any kind of test for Wilder. If anything, it’s a horrible mismatch due to Wilder’s size, speed, power, youth and talent.

Arreola has always been slow, but he’s now looking even slower in his last several fights. I think Arreola has slipped a few notches in his game due to age, wear and tear and not being in the best condition for his fights. In looking at the Wilder-Arreola kickoff presser recently, Arreola looked heavy like he had put on some weight.

Since there’s very little time for Arreola to take that weight off, I don’t think he’s going to be able to burn through enough fat to come into the match with Wilder in any kind of real shape. I wouldn’t be surprised if Arreola is in the 270s for this fight, and too slow to do much of anything other than to take right hands to the head over and over again. I think Wilder is going to poleaxe Arreola by the 3rd round.

“I pick Fury to win the rematch because he’s done it once and he can do it again,” said Joshua about the Fury-Klitschko 2 rematch, which currently doesn’t have a fight date due to Fury’s recent ankle injury. “No, I don’t [think Wladimir’s time has passed]. If you take a look at the first fight, Wlad opened up in the last couple of rounds and it was getting a bit tough for Fury. I don’t think Wladimir is at the end at all. I don’t think (Tyson) has taken his foot off the gas because he had been away training (before the injury).”

I think Joshua doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to the Fury vs. Wladimir rematch. You can’t just back Fury because he beat Wladimir the first time last November. That’s simple-minded thinking and lazy in my view. Just because something happened once doesn’t mean it’s going to happen every time.

I think Wladimir wasn’t ready mentally for the Fury fight, as he wasn’t prepared for a mobile fighter that was going to use nonstop feints for 12 rounds. Fury threw a lot of slapping shots in the air that weren’t meant to land. They were constant light punches thrown in the air in front of him to keep Wladimir from being able to get set to throw his own shots.

Wladimir isn’t the type of fighter like Wilder, who will ignore that kind of garbage and will fire off his bombs whether his opponents are scratching at the air with their shots or using feints. Wladimir needs his opponents to be perfectly still and not throwing anything for him to be comfortable enough to throw his own shots. However, I think Wladimir has worked to overcome his timid fighting style, and see him going after Fury immediately when the two of them eventually face each other.

I don’t think Fury is going to last very long against Wladimir with him attacking him nonstop with power shots. The good news is that Fury won’t be able to start yapping about how he was overweight for the fight and not in optimal condition, because he’s getting plenty of time to burn off all that fat he added to his body after his win over Wladimir last November.

Fury’s ankle injury, which some boxing fans see as an excuse for him to have more time to burn off the blubber, will give him the time he needs to get down to the perfect weight for the rematch. If Fury loses to Wladimir in the rematch, it won’t be due to him being out of shape and flabby. It’ll be due to Wladimir being the better fighter.

I think Wladimir was the more talented of the two last time they fought each other. He just didn’t have the mental capacity to use all the assets he had going for him. Wladimir was like a Ferrari automobile stuck in 1st gear for 12 rounds, and unable to shift into 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears.

Fury doesn’t have the weapons to deal with the kind of power shots that Wladimir is going to be hitting him with. The only Fury can do to try and keep Wladimir off him is to throw weak slaps into the air. That’s not going to stop Wladimir for an instant in this fight, because he’s going to ignore all that and go after Fury to take him out.