By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko will be the two heavyweights that will be fighting over the vacant World Boxing Association ‘Super Championship’ belt in the first quarter of 2017, according to the WBA. This is the second WBA heavyweight title that will be fought over.
The WBA also ordered Shannon Briggs and Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne to fight for the WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title. This is good news for fans. Wladimir (64-4, 53 KOs) gets to fight Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) for the WBA strap, and you get Browne and the 44-year-old Briggs fighting for the WBA’s junior heavyweight strap.
With the Joshua-Klitschko fight taking place in the spring of 2017, it means Wladimir will be out of the ring for a long time. It’ll be close to two years since Wladimir has fought. The fact that he’s not going to take a tune-up to get ready for the fight makes you wonder how serious he is in wanting to win the title. When you see a fighter coming off of a layoff of nearly two years, it’s hard to imagine him being in a good position to capture a world title. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wladimir retires if he loses the fight to Joshua. It would be a good payday for Wladimir to retire on.
The Joshua vs. Klitschko fight will likely take place in the UK. That works in Joshua’s favor. It’s unclear why Wladimir would want to agree to fight in the UK, but that’s where it will likely take place. Needless to say, Wladimir will be putting himself at a tremendous disadvantage by fighting in the UK rather than in Germany or a neutral venue. However, a fight between Wladimir and Joshua wouldn’t likely draw a large crowd if it took place in the U.S, and it’s hard to argue that Wladimir is in the position to push for it to take place in Germany, given that he lost his last fight to Tyson Fury.
It’s nice that the WBA is finally sanctioning the Klitschko-Joshua fight for their WBA ‘Super Championship’ heavyweight title. However, with the fight being so far into the future, it kind of looks bad in my view. The WBA would have been better off having their title fought for right now rather than having it fought for months from now in 2017. There’s also the question of whether the soon to be 41-year-old Wladimir should be the one who is fighting for the WBA ‘super championship.’
You can argue that Wladimir doesn’t rate to be fighting for the title given that he lost his last fight, has been out of the ring for a year now, and looked dreadful in his last performance. The unbeaten Luis Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) is a heck of a lot more deserving of a fight for the WBA ‘Super Championship’ than Wladimir, isn’t he? If this were the NFL, you wouldn’t let a team play in the Super Bowl twice in a row after they got beat already.
Wladimir already lost to Fury in his last fight, so I do not understand why he’s fighting for a ‘super championship.’ To me, Wladimir isn’t in the position to fight for a super championship. I know he had a rematch clause in his contract with Fury, but I don’t think he should be fighting for the WBA’s top heavyweight belt, given his loss in his last fight. If anything, Wladimir should fight for the WBA’s junior heavyweight title, the ‘regular’ strap. How do you let a guy fight for the ‘super championship’ when they lost their last fight? I don’t understand that. If I was in charge of the WBA, I would want to set up a higher standard for my titles to be fought over. I’m just saying. Of course, I also wouldn’t have two champions at heavyweight. That’s crazy.
It’s unfortunate that the WBA is persisting in keeping two titles for the same division instead of phasing out one of the straps. It’s a mess with two champions in the same division. I can understand why the WBA would want two champions, but I think it looks bad and it’s confusing to the fans.
Joshua has a fight he needs to get out of the way first against Eric Molina on December 10 before he can face Wladimir for the WBA ‘Super Championship’ next year.
The WBA ‘super championship’ strap is the one former WBA heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, 28, gave up recently, as he’s got some issues he’s got to take care of in terms of drug and mental problems before he can return to the ring. Wladimir and Fury were twice scheduled to fight each other for his WBA and WBO heavyweight titles, but Fury pulled out of both fights. The first time was earlier this year after Fury suffered an ankle injury. The second time that Fury pulled out was due to him having mental problems, which caused his October 29 rematch with Wladimir to be canceled.
There was hope that a fight between Wladimir and the 26-year-old Joshua could be quickly made for them to fight each other on December 10 for the vacant WBA title at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. However, the WBA was slow in sanctioning the Klitschko vs. Joshua fight, and eventually the fight couldn’t happen due to Wladimir suffering a calf injury. With the WBA waiting until November to sanction the Klitschko-Joshua fight, the fight wouldn’t have happened anyway due to there not being enough time to promote the December 10 contest.
“Team Klitschko is very happy about this WBA resolution,” Klitschko’s manager Bernd Boente said to ESPN.com. “Wladimir always was a proud and committed WBA ‘super’ champion and now he wants to regain his title. From the beginning, Wladimir made clear how important it is to him that the WBA title is on the line in his next fight.”
Well, it remains to be seen whether the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight can get made. There will be a lot of tough negotiating that will need to be done before it can get made. There will be a lot of tough negotiating that will need to be done before this fight can get made. With all the cash that is on the line for the fight, I don’t see Wladimir dragging his feet too much, because he’s not going to make that kind of money fighting the likes of Deontay Wilder or the winner of the Joseph Parker vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. fight.
If Wladimir is unable to negotiate the fight with Joshua, his options are not nearly as good fighting the other top guys in the heavyweight division in terms of the money he’ll make fighting them. The risks would be just as high for Wladimir for him in facing someone like Deontay or Parker. I can’t see Wladimir beating either of those guys at this point in his career.
Joshua has what many boxing fans consider as a glorified tune-up fight against #8 IBF Eric Molina on December 10. There are arguably much better contenders that Joshua could have fought than Molina, but I don’t think that’s what this is about. Molina, 34, is a beatable fringe contender, who some casual boxing fans might remember from his 9th round knockout loss to Deontay last year. Molina isn’t much of a threat to Joshua unlike Luis Ortiz and Jarrell Miller, so he’s getting the fight with him on December 10. It’s what you would call a ‘safe fight’ for Joshua. You can also call it a ‘showcase fight’ for Joshua, because it’s one where he’ll be able to show off his boxing skills without much worry of him losing. It’s a mismatch in other words, because Molina is a guy that stands around a lot, and takes punishment. He wants to win the world title, but I don’t see him as being even remotely talented enough to get the job done.
“Although the plans are for a major unification [fight] in the spring, this fight requires Anthony’s full focus,” said Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to espn.com.
There’s no real worry for Joshua in his fight against Molina, because it’s a simple mismatch. Molina is a guy that Wilder knocked down four times in beating him via a 9th round knockout last year. I see Molina is a step down for Joshua from his fights against Dominic Breazeale and Dillian Whyte. Hearn chose Molina to fight Joshua for a reason. He could have picked Luis Ortiz, who he now promotes in his Matchroom Sport stable, or he could have selected the unbeaten Jarrell Miller. But for some reason, Hearn selected Molina. I think it’s pretty obvious why Molina was selected for Joshua. He’s an easy mark and not much of a threat to beating Joshua. The last thing that Hearn needs is for Joshua to lose before he gets his career high payday fight against Wladimir. For all we know, Joshua will never get a payday like this for the remainder of his career, because there’s no one as popular as Klitschko in the heavyweight division. I don’t know if there ever will be anyone like that for the remainder of Joshua’s career. Ortiz is heading towards his 40s, so he’s not going to likely have time to pick up a fan base. Deontay is being matched too poorly for him to win over a lot of boxing fans the way Wladimir did.