By Scott Gilfoid: Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder will be in attendance for this month’s fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) says he’d like to get inside the ring afterwards to be with the fighters, but he wants to be respectful of them. The 6’7” Wilder is hoping to face the Joshua-Klitschko winner in a unification fight in 2017 if possible.
There’s a chance that Deontay could get his wish. It all depends on the outcome of the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight. If Joshua wins but struggles badly in getting knocked down a few times, then it’s hard to imagine his promoter Eddie Hearn letting his No.1 money fighter in his Matchroom stable get anywhere near a talent like Deontay.
Hearn has been very careful in who he’s matched Joshua up with thus far. He still hasn’t fought David Haye or Luis Ortiz. Instead of facing those guys, Hearn has been putting Joshua in with the likes of Eric Molina, Dominic Breazeale, Charles Martin and Dillian Whyte. In other words, beatable guys that Joshua could defeat without any drama involved like we saw in his controversial gold medal win in the 2012 London Olympics in England. Joshua won several questionable wins in that Olympics.
“If I can get in the ring afterwards, I would love to but I will be respectful as well. I am respectful type of champion as well,” said Wilder to skysports.com. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything. I will let them know I am there and I’ll be looking at who I want next.”
Well, the money fight for Wilder is definitely against the winner of the Joshua-Klitschko fight. I just don’t know if Wilder will be able to get either of those guys to fight him. I definitely can’t see the 41-year-old Wladimir fighting Wilder. If Wladimir wins, I see him going back to fighting guys like Francesco Pianeta, Jean Marc Mormeck, Alex Leapai, Bryant Jennings and Kubrat Pulev. In other words, I can see Wladimir going back to defending his titles against safe opposition if he beats Joshua.
If Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is at all interested in matching him against Wilder in 2017, then I can see him giving Deontay the green light to enter the ring immediately after the Joshua-Klitschko fight is over with. After all, what better way to market a huge fight between Joshua and Wilder than to have the “Bronze Bomber” inside the ring in front of 90,000 British boxing fans to start the promotion for the huge unification fight. But I don’t know that Hearn actually wants to make that fight.
Heck, if Hearn wanted to make the Joshua-Wilder fight, he would have made it already. We’ve seen the type of guys that Hearn has been matching Joshua against. Even the Klitschko fight is what you could call safe match-making by Hearn, because the Ukrainian is viewed as an over-the-hill fighter by a lot of boxing fans. Just looking at how awful looked in his last fight against Tyson Fury is all you need to know to realize that he’s probably done as a fighter. That was 2 years ago. If Wladimir looked dreadful in 2015, he’s probably not better for having sat outside the ring for the last 2 years, unless he’s been drinking from the Fountain of Youth and gotten younger.
“I don’t have to desperately jump into the ring and make myself known to no-one,” said Wilder. “My name speaks for itself, my title speaks for itself and boxing speaks for me.”
I wouldn’t bother getting into the ring if I were Wilder unless Hearn asks him, and thus far I haven’t heard a peep from him about wanting to match Joshua against the talented American fighter next. Wilder should just lay low and do commentary for Sky for the Joshua-Wilder fight. If Hearn decides he wants to have Wilder inside the ring, he’ll let him know. I don’t think that’s going to happen though. My guess is Hearn is going to feed Tony Bellew to Joshua in his next fight rather than someone good like Wilder.
There’s too much danger in letting Joshua fight Wilder, because Joshua lacks hand speed and he pushes his punches too much. Joshua has packed on too much body building type of muscle since he turned pro in my opinion, and he’s become slower, and more robotic than he already was. If you let an athletic fighter with the kind of one-punch power that Wilder has get inside the ring with Joshua, it could be the end of his title reign.
That would be bad news for Hearn, because Joshua is in effect a golden goose in bringing in lots of good clean cash each time he fights. There are boxing fans in the UK that will pay to see Joshua fight no matter who he’s matched up against. Look at the fodder that Hearn has thrown in there with him lately.
The British boxing public is still paying to see his fights regardless of who he’s facing. If Joshua fights Wilder, he could get knocked cold by him in 2 or 3 rounds. Hearn would then need to push the reset button on Joshua’s career. What does that mean for the fans? It would likely mean at least 2 years of seeing Joshua matched against guys like Gary Cornish, Kevin Johnson, Raphael Love, Jason Gavern and Michael Sprott once again.
Those would be confidence builders for Joshua just like they were the previous time he fought them. I can’t believe Hearn burned through 2 years of Joshua’s career feeding him those guys. With Joshua being an Olympic gold medalist, he should have had to waste 2 years of his career fighting weak opposition. I’m just saying. What a waste of time.
Wilder had made it clear he wants to unify the division and with the IBF and WBA ‘Super’ titles on the line, he can’t wait to watch Joshua and Klitschko up close.
Anthony Crolla says Ricky Burns will come back from loss to Julius Indongo
Former lightweight champion Anthony Crolla believes that Ricky Burns will rebound from his loss last Saturday night to IBF light welterweight champion Julius Indongo. Burns (41-6-1, 14 KOs) lost a 12 round unanimous decision to IBF 140lb champion Indongo (22-0, 15 KOs) by the scores 120-108, 118-110 and 116-112 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. The judges that scored the fight 116-112 and 118-110 were very, very kind to Burns, because they gave him actual rounds. I saw the fight, and I couldn’t see one round in which the 34-year-old Burns came close to winning.
It was a TOTAL domination. Maybe if I had my eyes closed for the full 12 round fight, then I could come up with the scores that those 2 judges handed in. Burns seems like a nice guy, but he was totally whipped by the 5’10 ½” Indongo in that fight. Burns was taking huge shots all night long from the southpaw Indongo. The scores should have been far worse for Burns, as he was dropped in rounds 11 and 12 by Indongo.
All total, there were three times that Burns went down in the last 2 rounds. The referee ruled them slips, but I saw punches landed. When you fall down after getting hit, it’s supposed to be scored as a knockdown. I’m not sure what the rationale was with the referee working the fight for him not scoring Burns’ 3 trips to the canvas as knockdowns. Did the referee not have his eyes on the 2 fighters when the knockdowns occurred?
I couldn't ask for better fans, what an atmosphere tonight!! Will have a couple of weeks off and then back at it👊💥
— Ricky Burns (@ricksterko) April 16, 2017
“As he [Burns] said he is going to have a rest, spend some time with his family and then he’s going to come again,” Crolla said to skysports.com. “He is going to make another charge at something else, but obviously Ricky has been around a while and he’s had a hard career and we know what he’s done has been amazing.”
I’d like to see Burns and Crolla face each other. Crolla was just whipped for a second time by Jorge Linares, and I see him pretty much being finished as a fighter in the lightweight division. Burns is in the same boat at 140. There’s little chance that Burns will ever win another world title in my opinion.
Burns was extremely fortunate to win the WBA light welterweight title. If it wasn’t for the World Boxing Association blessing his fight with Michelle Di Rocco being for their WBA World title, I couldn’t see Burns winning another belt. I still don’t know why the WBA let the Burns-Di Rocco fight be for their WBA strap. It seems to me that the WBA should have insisted that Burns fight someone good like Rances Barthlemy or Adrien Broner for their belt rather than Di Rocco.
If Burns is going to try and make another run for a world title at 140, I do not know which direction he can go in to find a vacant belt or a vulnerable champion that he would have a chance of beating. Terence Crawford holds the WBA/WBC titles, and Indongo the IBF/WBA belts. Burns has already lost to both of those guys. Does Burns wait for those 2 guys to give up their titles so that can slide in and snatch one against someone like Di Rocco again? Burns could be waiting a long, long time if that’s his vision. I don’t think Burns has the youth to wait out Indongo and Crawford.
If Burns can get a nice little payday fight against Crolla, it would be a nice career ender type of match. I see a fight against Crolla as the perfect ending for both guys. I’m not sure if Crolla wants to fight Burns, because I think it’s a bad match-up for him. Burns would have too much size and mobility for Crolla.