By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight unified world champion Wladimir Klitschko believes IBF/WBA champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) has got the talent to unify the heavyweight division by capturing the last remaining 2 titles not in his possession at this time with the WBC and WBO belts.
Wladimir, 41, came close to beating Joshua earlier this year in their April fight at Wembley Stadium. As such, by Wladimir saying that Joshua has a good chance of unifying the heavyweight division, he’s complimenting himself in the process, because he could have and SHOULD have knocked him out in that fight. For that reason, you have to take what Wladimir says with a grain of salt.
“I have passed the torch to the younger lion,” said Wladimir to the sun.co.uk in talking about Joshua. “I wish, from the bottom of my heart, he continues to carry this torch for a long time and is very successful just like I was. Joshua is capable of unifying the division, absolutely.”
There are a lot of boxing fans that would disagree with Wladimir in saying that he’s passed the torch to Joshua. Wladimir might think he’s passed the torch to Joshua, but that torch might be little more than a burning match stick at best. Joshua has looked awful in his last 2 fights against the soon to be 42-year-old Wladimir and the 36-year-old Carlos Takam. The way the 254 pound Joshua fought in both of those fights, he’s not going to be carrying any torch for any length of time, and he’s not going to be unifying the heavyweight division.
It’ll be interesting to see if Wladimir changes his tune about Joshua if he gets knocked out by Joseph Parker or Deontay Wilder. Will Wladimir continue to say that Joshua is going to unify the division after he’s knocked out or will he give credit to the guy that knocked him out? It’ll sound strange if Wladimir keeps droning on like a broken record about Joshua being the guy that took the torch from him if he gets knocked cold by Wilder or Parker, won’t it? I’m just saying.
If Wladimir had fought Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker and beaten both of them, then you could take what he says about Joshua unifying the division as having some real meaning. But the fact that Wladimir HASN’T fought those guys, and the fact that he could have beaten Joshua if he’s shown some courage, makes what he says about AJ totally irrelevant. Joshua doesn’t look like someone that is capable of unifying the heavyweight division. But even if Joshua does, he’s not going to be able to keep the titles for any length of time unless his wily promoter Eddie Hearn steers him to safe waters by avoiding the dangerous guys in the heavyweight division.
Hearn is a good promoter. He obviously knows the limitations of his fighters. Look at how Hearn is dragging his feet when it comes to his fighter IBF/WBA bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett. Hearn is showing no interest in putting Burnett in with WBO champion Zolani Tete. That’s a fight that is NOT going to happen because Hearn doesn’t want it to. I think we’re going to see the same thing with Hearn being ultra-careful with Joshua, matching him against guys he feels confident he can beat.