By Scott Gilfoid: With Wladimir Klitschko now out of the way, Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) is licking his chops at the idea of fighting new IBF/IBO/WBA/WBA heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) to relieve him of his titles. There’s talk that Joshua worked Fury over in the past when the two of them had a sparring session together.
Sparring obviously doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot in most cases, but if Joshua did work Fury over like the rumors say he did, then it might be a bad idea for Fury to take the fight with Joshua right now.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport is very interested in getting a fight made between Joshua and Fury. If Hearn gets his way, we could see Joshua facing Fury by next summer if Fury beats Klitschko for a second time and if Joshua beats Dillian Whyte next month on December 12th.
“If the opportunity presented itself, we’d take the fight. It’s only a fight, at the end of the day, heavyweight champion or not,” Joshua said to skysports.com about a fight against Fury. “My job is to beat him, so of course I’m going in there with the same mentality,” Joshua said.
I hope Joshua doesn’t hold his breath waiting for the Fury fight because I really don’t see it happening. Hearn can certainly push for it though, but I don’t see Fury giving Joshua the opportunity. Fury doesn’t want to fight David Haye and Deontay Wilder.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Fury also doesn’t want to fight Joshua and Dillian Whyte. Fury thinks it’s great that he beat Wladimir to win three of the four world titles in the heavyweight division, but not he’s got everybody gunning for him and he’s got to make the right decision about which fights are worth the risk in taking and which of them aren’t worth the risk.
I’d have to say that Deontay Wilder is probably too much of a risk for fury to take because it’s a bad match-up for him. Wilder is so much faster, stronger, more mobile and dare I say more talented. It would be nothing like Fury’s fight with the arguably over-the-hill Wladimir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk3LUAuFoq4
“I just have to follow suit and wait for my chance so I can come through and dominate at some stage,” Joshua said. “You’ve got young guns like myself and Dillian Whyte who are going to cause mayhem.”
I don’t know if Joshua is going to be able to handle Whyte in their fight on December 12th. I think that’s a fight that could very well go against Joshua with him getting knocked out. That doesn’t mean Joshua can’t still have a good career and blast Fury out when/if he finally gets a fight against him.
It just means that Whyte is a better fighter than Joshua right now at this point in his career. If Joshua loses the fight to Whyte, it’s going to take him a while to get back to where he is now. Joshua can forget about a fight against Fury because it’ll take him ages to get back to the position where he is now with his #2 WBC, #3 WBO ranking in the division.
“It’s interesting. Every time I’m pulling up to a petrol station or checking social media, everyone says, ‘When are you going to fight Tyson Fury?’ This was way before he became champion. There’s always been an interest there. People want it to happen, so at some stage down the line, it will happen, whether it’s next year or the year after,” Joshua said.
This is funny. Joshua really wants the Fury fight. I just don’t think he’s going to get the fight until he raises his profile on the world stage. That means Joshua is going to need to somehow beat Whyte, and I’m not sure that he can do that. Joshua has been fed all these horrible 3rd tier fighters by his promoter Eddie Hearn since he turned pro in 2013, and now he’s going to be facing his first quality opponent in Whyte. All the bad habits that Joshua has developed from facing fodder opposition is going to likely create a nightmare for him when he gets inside the ring with Whyte. I can’t see Johsua using his brains for that fight, because he’s had it too easy thus far.
Comments are closed.