By Scott Gilfoid: The good news for IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn is they won’t have to wait too much longer to fight out if the World Boxing Association will sanction their fight against Wladimir Klitschko for their fight on December 10 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. WBA president Gilberto Mendez Jr. says the WBA committee has a deadline of Wednesday to make a decision.
Mendoza said to ESPN.com this about whether the WBA will sanction the Klitschko vs. Joshua fight this week:
“The members of the committee have a deadline until (Wednesday) to respond.”
Wladimir Klitschko will opt to fight “Big Daddy” Lucas Browne for the vacant WBA heavyweight strap if the WBA chooses not to sanction the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight. It makes sense for the WBA to decline the Joshua-Klitschko fight, because Joshua isn’t a contender.
Wladimir is ranked #2 by the WBA and Browne #5. It’s always nice when one of the sanctioning bodies looks out for their contenders. I think it’s a good deal for the WBA’s contenders that they might have Wladimir and Browne fighting for the WBA strap rather than having one of the existing champions get a crack at their belt.
The Klitschko vs. Browne fight, if it takes place, will be happening in Hamburg, Germany. It sounds like it’ll be a great fight.
Joshua’s promoter Hearn is very anxious to get him a fight against Wladimir because he believes he’ll win. It’s interesting that Hearn wasn’t chomping at the bit to put Joshua in with Wladimir two years ago when the Ukrainian fighter was still fighting at a high level. It’s only recently that Hearn has suddenly started showing interest in making that fight. Wladimir looked horrible in losing his last fight against Tyson Fury a year ago in November. Is that the reason why Hearn is interested in putting Joshua in with Klitschko now?
It’s better for the boxing world for Wladimir to pick up the WBA title off of Browne right now so that he can let the Joshua fight marinate a little bit more. It’ll also help Wladimir to have a title in his possession when he faces Joshua, because then it would be a unification fight rather than him going into the fight as a challenger. Wladimir would be on equal footing with Joshua once he has the WBA title. It works out better for him, and it makes the fight a unification fight between two champions.
If Wladimir wins the WBA title, he doesn’t necessarily need to fight Joshua first. Wladimir could face WBC champ Deontay Wilder in a unification match first. If Wladimir wins the fight, then he could face Joshua. The same goes for Wilder. If he beats Wladimir, then it would be him that moves forward to fight Joshua. That way we would have a couple of interesting fights instead of just one. Wilder is currently out of action with a hand and biceps injury, but he’s expected to be back inside the ring in early 2017.