By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua likes to go to war in his fights to turn them into brawls, but he’s probably not going to get that kind of an encounter with Wladimir Klitschko on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Frankly, I think Joshua vs. Wladimir could be one of the most boring fights of the year if Wladimir gets his way. He sure as heck isn’t going to trade shots.
We already saw in Wladimir’s last fight against Tyson Fury that he has NO INTEREST in taking risks by throwing his right hand. The only thing Wladimir did against Fury was follow him around with his hand cocked for 12 rounds without throwing anything. What a dreadful fight that was.
Now it’s Joshua’s turn to fight Wladimir, and a ton of fans in the UK are going to be paying to see this. Boy, I bet there’s going to be a lot of angry Brits on the night when the Joshua-Klitschko fight fails to produce fireworks of any kind. Gilfoid will be here to tell you, ‘I told you so.’ I can see the future for the Joshua-Klitschko fight, and it’s bad, bad and bad.
To say there’s going to be a lot of irate fans afterwards is putting it lightly. I think the fans are going to be stomping mad. I wouldn’t be surprised if the PPV numbers drop off for Joshua in a huge way in his future fights against the Klitschko affair unless he can get it over with as fast as possible. That would be my recommendation. Try and put Wladimir out of his misery as possible in order to keep from angering the paying boxing fans, who want to see a fight and not a bunch of dancing like they saw with the Fury vs. Klitschko fight in 2015.
Wladimir is a technically oriented heavyweight, who prefers to box and NOT get hit. The 41-year-old Wladimir could make it very, very BORING for the British boxing fans that purchases the fight with their hard-earned money on Sky Box Office PPV on April 29. The American fans won’t have to pay to see the fight in the U.S, because it’ll be shown on regular non-PPV HBO or Showtime. Maybe someday the U.S boxing fans will want to pay to see Joshua fight, but right now, it’s not going to happen.
If Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn insists on the U.S fans paying to see him fight, you’ll likely hear crickets chirping out in TV land with few fans purchasing it. Wladimir doesn’t have the kind of exciting style that Joshua needs for one of his fights to interest the fans as a whole. This could be a painfully boring fight unless Joshua FORCES Wladimir into a situation where he has no choice but to let his hands go. My feelings are that by the time Wladimir realizes that he needs to start brawling with Joshua, it’ll be too late. He’ll be cornered and too hurt to mount any kind of offense.
Some boxing fans and writers believe that Klitschko doesn’t possess the punch resistance for him to survive long in the type of fight where he’s being asked to exchange big power shots with his opponents. Never the less, Joshua hasn’t proven himself capable of taking a lot of power shots either. Since turning pro in 2013, Joshua has only been hit hard once and that was by Dillian Whyte in the 2nd round of their fight last year. The results saw Joshua staggered and badly hurt.
It was Joshua’s good fortune that Whyte suffered a shoulder injury when he hit him that punch. I hate to say it, but it probably would have been curtains for Joshua if Whyte had been able to keep nailing him with left hooks. The rest of the guys that Joshua has fought during his pro career have been awful fodder opponents picked out by his promoter. Joshua isn’t getting hit back, because he’s largely a bunch of stiffs.
Joshua said to skysports.com this about his preference for wanting his fight against Wladimir to be an exciting one:
“His style has worked for him so you can’t knock it. But you’ve got to land a few, give a few, work on the inside,” said Joshua about Klitschko. “The first rounds are always cagey but, by the fourth round, the fight has to get exciting. That Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield style scrap? That Dillian Whyte-Dereck Chisora style scrap? You never know, but I don’t see him fighting like that.”
For Joshua to fight a heavyweight match that is exciting, then he’s going to need to find someone that will fight him back like Deontay Wilder or Luis Ortiz.
I don’t think Joshua a classic brawler. He’s not a slugger like Holyfield, Bowe or even Lennox Lewis. These were all guys that were willing to get hit to land power shots. The only guys that I’ve seen Joshua jump on in his fights have been horribly over-matched fringe level or 2nd tier fighters that had no chance to begin with. These were fighters that were not even close to being as good as the guys that Joshua fought in the 2012 Olympics, when he controversially won four matches to win the gold medal. The Olympics was held in London that year.
I haven’t seen Joshua show the exciting style of Holyfield, Lewis or Bowe when he’s been in with a decent fighter in Whyte. That’s the only guy that had a shred of talent that Joshua has fought during his career. If Joshua would just get in the ring with Deontay or Luis Ortiz and start slugging like Holyfield and Bowe, then he would be backing up his tough talk. I don’t think Joshua will ever do that, because he doesn’t have the same warrior-like instinct that those fighters did. These guys were willing to trade and they didn’t care if they got hit.
“It will be interesting to see which style I bring to the table against Klitschko,” said Joshua. “I like to adapt to the fighter. Maybe I’ll counter him, maybe I’ll move on the back foot.”
So there it is. After all the talking about wanting his fight to be exciting against Klitschko, Joshua isn’t even clear on how he’ll fight him. Does that sound like something you’d hear from Bowe, a young George Foreman, Holyfield or Mike Tyson? I think a fighter has to be born with the mindset of a brawler. I just don’t see that type of mentality with Joshua. He doesn’t like to get hit, so I think his fight against Wladimir could be about as interesting as watching paint dry on a fence. I’m just saying.