By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champ Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder is expecting undefeated Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) to take Commonwealth heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s scalp this coming Saturday in their fight on December 12th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The Joshua-Whyte fight will be televised on Sky Box Office.
Wilder thinks that Joshua hasn’t improved any since he fought in the Olympics in 2012, and he doesn’t see what the 6’6” Joshua has done as a pro to be ranked No.2 by the World Boxing Council.
Deontay sees Joshua’s inflated ranking by the WBC as the politics of boxing, with him getting ranked for some other reason rather than for him having proven himself by facing the best in the division.
Wilder does have a good point in talking about Joshua being ranked high without having done anything. I mean, when you look at the guys that Joshua has been beating, it just makes you wonder what the WBC is thinking in giving him such a high ranking.
In Joshua’s last 10 fights, he’s beaten these guys:
Gary Cornish
Kevin Johnson
Raphael Zumbano Love
Jason Gavern
Michael Sprott
Denis Bakhtov
Konstantin Airich
Matt Skelton
Matt Legg
Hector Alfredo Avila
For boxing fans ignorant about the sport, they might look at that bunch of fighters and assume that they’re all top grade guys. Unfortunately, they’re not A level guys. Those are all C and D level fighters. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been a wily fox in putting him in with horrible opposition that has obviously made Joshua look unbeatable.
This coming Saturday, Joshua will be stepped up against his first quality opponent in Dillian Whyte, who has yet to be ranked in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies despite fighting pretty much the same level of opposition as Joshua.
I don’t know what to think about that. When you see one fighter facing awful opposition and getting a No.2 ranking by the WBC, and another fighter facing the same terrible opposition and not even getting ranked at all in the top 15, it makes you wonder whether the sport is based on popularity rather than on actual talent.
“Joshua is ranked No.2 for some reason,” Wilder said to secondsout. “I don’t think he’s really improved himself to get to that height. I mean, who has he really fought to get to that rank? You know there are many ways to get ranked. It’s just the politics of boxing, and how to work the business of boxing per say. Everybody wants to get their guy, if they’ve got the goods, to get to the top real faster. I don’t need to go more into that. It is what it is. Soon he’ll be a mandatory of mine, and I’m looking forward to that. But don’t count Dillian Whyte out in this fight. Don’t be surprised if he beats him. I think Dillian Whyte is going to bring it. I think he’s going to get an upset. So if he beats Joshua, don’t be surprised,” Deontay said.
Joshua is coming into the fight with Whyte with a lot of popularity and hype behind him. For that reason, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins a controversial decision in this fight. Whyte might want to consider going for a knockout because it could be tough on him to try and get a decision.
I hate to say it but I agree with Wilder about Whyte beating Joshua. I do see Joshua getting whipped this Saturday night by Whyte, because I don’t think that Joshua has improved at all since he turned pro. In fact, I think Joshua has gone downhill by adding 20 pounds of useless muscle.
I don’t know why Joshua put the muscle on it, because it certainly didn’t help him. The changes that Joshua has made to his game since he turned pro have been mainly cosmetic with him adding useless muscle rather than learning how to fight and improving. It’s as if Joshua changed his hairstyle since turning pro by wearing something different on his hair, and then a lot of fans frothing about the mouth about how good Joshua is.
The reality is I see Joshua as having been a better fighter when he was an amateur and was fighting in the 220s rather than the 250s like now. Heck, even when Joshua was an amateur, he was flawed in terms of hand speed, stamina, defensive skills and with his ability to throw power shots.
In the Olympics, Joshua was a big arm puncher with stamina issues, and he was badly exposed in his four fights in that Olympics. I had Joshua losing to Roberto Cammarelle of Italy and Erislandy Savon of Cuba. I also had Joshua losing to Ivan Dychko from Kazakhstan and Zhang Zhilei from China. I thought Joshua gassed out in all four fights, and was given controversial decisions in that Olympics, which took place in London, England.
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