By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) will be fighting on November 26 against an opponent still to be determined. The fight won’t take place at the O2 Arena in London, UK, according to Sky Sports News. As previously mentioned, the two leading options for Joshua’s November fight is 37-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne and former world title challenger Kubrat Pulev.
Both fighters have their plus and minuses about them. It’s likely that Stiverne will get the fight if Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn can successfully negotiate the fight with Stiverne’s promoter Don King. If not, then you can expect to see the 6’4 1/2” Pulev get the nod.
Hearn’s dad Barry Hearn is said to be keen on the idea of having Joshua fight Stiverne. Perhaps the fight plays out well in the UK or something. Stiverne isn’t well known with the casual boxing fans in the U.S.
He’s had several of his fights televised in the U.S in his two fights against Chris Arreola and his title fight against Deontay Wilder. However, it’s unclear how many casual fans remember Stiverne from those fights. He’s not a household name that’s for sure.
“November 26 is the date for your diary. We are changing city. The opponent and venue will be confirmed in the next few weeks,” said Eddie Hearn via skysports.com.
Joshua is expected to start negotiations with his International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger Joseph Parker for a fight that will take place in 2017. Parker, 24, would take the fight with Joshua in November if he could get it because he’s confident that he’ll beat the 26-year-old.
“We’re ready now. If Eddie Hearn rang me up tomorrow and says we want to fight in the mandatory period, we want to fight November or December – that would be fantastic,”said Parker’s promoter Dean Lonergan to skysports.com.
That’s a bad match-up for Joshua against the 6’4” Parker. He’s younger than Joshua, hits just as hard, has a great chin, and can box better than him. Parker does everything well. He can do a bit of everything. I wouldn’t say that Parker is the best in every category, but he’s very well-schooled and his flexibility makes him a dangerous opponent for Joshua. It wouldn’t be the typical opponent for Joshua where they just stand there stationary letting him have him have his way. Joshua’s last three opponents – Dominic Breazeale, Charles Martin and Dillian Whyte – were all standing in one place the entire fight, making it easy for Joshua to nail him with his power shots. Joshua didn’t need to use his feet at all or deal with anything coming back because those fighters aren’t throwing a lot of punches. Whyte initially threw punches for the first two rounds, but after he injured his shoulder and gassed out in the 2nd round, he went into the shutdown mode and let Joshua have his way for the remainder of the fight until getting blasted out in the seventh round.
Parker is expected to fight the big 6’7” Ukrainian heavyweight Alexander Dimitrenko on October 1. That should be a good warm-up for Parker to get him ready for Joshua’s fighting style. I wouldn’t say that Dimitrenko has a similar fighting style as Joshua, but he’s similar in some respects with the way he throws his right hands, his size and the way he has lead feet like Joshua. Dimitrenko doesn’t move well, but neither does Joshua. As such, it’s the perfect tune-up fight for Parker to get ready for what he’ll be seeing inside the ring when he faces Joshua.
If Joshua is smart, he’ll fight Pulev rather than the 6’2” Stiverne. The idea behind a fight against Pulev is to have someone that will get Joshua ready for a fight against Parker. Pulev and Parker are the same size, both have excellent jabs, and they do certain things that are alike in the ring. Stiverne is nothing like Parker. It’s a completely different fighter.
Hopefully, Eddie Hearn will realize the importance of selecting an opponent for Joshua that will get him ready for what he’ll be dealing with when he gets inside the ring with Parker, because he’s going to need a tune-up for that fight. Joshua isn’t good enough to just go in there and blow Parker out of the water like he did with his recent fights against Breazeale, Martin and Whyte. Those were mediocre fighters in total mismatches. They were mismatches on paper, which is probably the only reason why they were selected for Joshua to fight instead of someone with talent, power, size and boxing skills like Parker or dare I say, Deontay Wilder. If Hearn wanted a talent as an opponent for Joshua instead of fodder, he would have already put him in with Wilder and Parker.
It’s strange that Hearn hasn’t pulled the trigger on those fights. What does that tell you, ay? I smell fear. Parker and Wilder would have a chance of blasting Joshua into the upper deck of the O2 Arena with their power, and the gravy train would likely end shortly after that. I couldn’t see the British boxing public wanting to continue to pay to see Joshua fight on Sky Box Office pay-per-view after he gets knocked over by Parker and/or Deontay. I’m just saying. Hearn sure has matched Joshua well, hasn’t he? I wouldn’t call Joshua a paper champion just yet, but some fans think he is due to the careful match-making that’s being done for him by Hearn.
If Joshua and Hearn had their heads screwed on properly, they would realize that it’s better to fight Parker right now in November than it is to wait. Parker is like a computer that is learning with each fight and becoming smarter, better and more invincible.
It’s far better for Joshua to fight Parker right now before he gets fully ramped up than if he waits longer. If Parker was a normal heavyweight that was already the finished product, then I could see it being smart to wait him out for as long as possible. But that’s not the case. Parker is improving still and getting markedly better with each fight. That’s why it’s far better for Joshua to fight him now rather than later.