By Scott Gilfoid: It was announced last Saturday night that IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will be defending his belt in a fight against 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko on April 29 at the huge Wembley Stadium in London, England. The fight will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV in the UK.
My question is does a match against a clearly past his best and VERY, VERY ring rusty Klitschko sell to the British boxing public? The fight isn’t going to be on pay-per-view in the UK. As far as I know, it won’t be PPV in the U.S. How does a fight involving an aging guy that lost his last fight in Wladimir end up on PPV against Joshua?
I don’t understand that. Perhaps it’ll do well depending on what Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn’s goals are for the fight in terms of PPV buys and ticket sales. Judging by the lack of applause that Wladimir, Joshua and Hearn got last Saturday night as they announced the fight in front of the Manchester Arena crowd, I have a feeling that this fight is not going to do well at all.
For the Joshua-Klitschko fight to bring in a lot of PPV buys and sell tickets, I think they would need to depend on a lot of casual boxing fans in the UK in making it a success. In other words, a lot of fans with likely scant knowledge of the sport, who might not realize that Klitschko is coming off of a listless 12 round decision loss to Tyson Fury in his last fight, and he will have been out of the ring for 18 months by the time the Joshua-Klitschko fight starts.
If the casual fans think Wladimir is still in his prime, then they’ll likely happily scoop up the tickets and purchase the fight in high numbers on Sky Box Office PPV. I imagine Hearn is hoping the fans will say, ‘Oh Boy, Joshua is fighting the great Klitschko. Where I do I buy the tickets?’ But if the fans have knowledge about the sport, then they might be saying, “Why in the heck if Joshua fighting the 41-year-old Klitschko? He hasn’t won a fight in TWO YEARS, and he looked dreadful in his last two fights. Why is Joshua fighting that old guy? Why isn’t he fighting Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz or David Haye?’
I don’t see the Joshua-Klitschko fight doing as well as Hearn thinks it will on Sky Box Office PPV or in selling tickets. I know that former super middleweight champion Carl Froch sold a lot of tickets for his second fight against George Groves at Wembley Stadium in 2014, but that was a compelling fight. Groves at least was in his prime, and was coming off of a controversial stoppage loss to Froch in his previous fight. The rematch sold itself, and Groves did a great job of promoting the fight by trash talking Froch. But it’s a different story with the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight. Wladimir isn’t going to trash talk, and he’s not in his prime. He’s coming off of a loss to Tyson Fury. The British boxing public is aware of how Wladimir looked against Fury, because the fight was watched by tons of people. Those fans are obviously going to remember how boring that fight was, and how poor Wladimir looked. That’s why I don’t think the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight is going to do nearly as well as Hearn thinks it will.
Honestly, it’s nice that Klitschko was a good heavyweight in the past when he ruled the division for long spell, but he’s not the same fighter at age. Even in Wladimir’s prime, he was stopped by Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster and Ross Puritty. Wladimir never avenged his losses to Sanders and Puritty. Instead, his brother Vitali Klitschko avenged them for him, and they were not easy fights for Vitali. Wladimir never beat anyone like Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis, even though those guys were around when he was fighting earlier in his career. Wladimir beat a lot of guys during his career, but he didn’t beat a lot of talented fighters.
These guys are probably the best fighters that Wladimir beat:
Kubrat Pulev
David Haye
Samuel Peter
Ruslan Chagaev
Chris Byrd
Tony Thompson
Eddie Chambers
Bryant Jennings
Wladimir won a lot of fights, but he didn’t beat a lot of talented fighters. Of the bunch that Wladimir defeated, only Haye has the talent to be a major player in the heavyweight division in this current era. Pulev is a top contender, but he’s not someone that would likely do well at all against Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua.
Joshua cleared the way for his fight against Wladimir by stopping Eric Molina (25-4, 19 KOs) in the 3rd round last Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Molina did nothing in the fight. All I could think of in watching the match was ‘Man, Hearn sure did a great job of finding someone who was no threat to Joshua. This guy isn’t even throwing punches. Great job, Hearn.’ It was a dreadful fight, because it’s not as if the signs were there ahead of time this would happen. If you saw how little effort Molina put in for his fights against Tomasz Adamek and Deontay Wilder, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Molina mostly stood around taking shots in both of those fights. Molina did hurt Wilder with one of the few punches he threw in their fight last year, but that was one of the rare shots he threw. In Molina’s fight against Adamek, he didn’t start letting his hands go until the 10th. In the all the other rounds, Molina fought just like he did against Joshua by not letting his hands go. It was only obvious that Molina fight like that against Joshua and stink up the joint with that performance. The Manchester had nothing to cheer about in the Joshua-Molina fight, because it was all one-way traffic for three rounds with Joshua throwing all the shots.
There were a lot of heavyweights that showed up at the Joshua vs. Molina fight last Saturday. Shannon Briggs, David Haye, and Luis Ortiz were all there. Joshua should have been fighting one of those guys, not an over-matched fighter like Molina.