By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is quite pleased that his fighter unbeaten #2 WBC heavyweight Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) is attracting so much interest from the other top heavyweights in the division.
Hearn brags that this week the following heavyweights have mentioned the 27-year-old Joshua’s name: Tyson Fury, Joseph Parker, Dereck Chisora, David Haye, Malik Scott and Dillian Whyte. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Joshua will be fighting any of them, so it’s kind of pointless for Hearn to be mentioning their names.
Hearn openly says the 6’4” Joseph Parker isn’t ready for a fight against Joshua. Hearn wants Parker to win more fights and become better known among the British boxing public before he looks to one day make a fight between them.
Right now, Parker is looking awfully good, and he’s one of those heavyweights who doesn’t seem to know his own strength. He might accidentally KO Joshua with a glancing blow if the two of them face each other. Granted, Parker still has a lot of rough spots in his game, but he more than makes up for it with his power. If Joshua tries bum rushing Parker like he’s done against his first 15 opponents he’s faced since he turned pro in 2014, I could see Parker lighting him up and taking him out in one or two rounds.
“In the last three days, I’ve counted probably six or seven fighters who’ve mentioned AJ or called him out. David Haye, Tyson Fury, Dereck Chisora, Malik Scott, Dillian Whyte, Joseph Parker. The list goes on and on,” Hearn said to skysports.com.
Hearn shouldn’t get confused by heavyweights mentioning Joshua’s name as guys that are serious about wanting to fight him right now. I don’t believe Haye or Fury are truly interested and ready to fight Joshua anytime soon. You can kind of X them both out as potential Joshua opponents in the near future.
Parker, Malik Scott and Chisora are definitely guys that would likely jump at the chance to give Joshua his first loss. But I don’t think Hearn will make any of those fights. I mean, there’s no upside to putting Joshua in with Malik Scott or Chisora, because those fighters have both been exposed recently in knockout losses.
There’s no new ground for Joshua to explore by facing them. As for Parker, he’s just too dangerous for Joshua to fight right now. I think this is the best time for Joshua to fight him, however. It’s better to fight the 24-year-old Parker before he develops fully, because if Hearn waits until then before putting Joshua in with him, then we could be seeing Joshua scooped up off the canvas with a giant spatula after getting planted by Parker.
“Everybody is targeting Joshua because he’s the money man of the division,” Hearn said. “It’s great news. They’ll all get their chance. They’ll all get their shot. It’s just that we can’t fight nine people on the same night.”
Well, Joshua has the option of fighting on Sky Box Office pay-per-view, and that means there’s money on the UK side for different heavyweights to get well paid for fighting him. Other than that, there’s nothing else that would interest different heavyweights to fight Joshua. I mean, he’s just a contender and far, far away from getting a world title shot. IBF champion Charles Martin hasn’t been mentioning his name and neither has WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
Tyson Fury, the IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion, is mentioning Joshua’s name, but I think Fury is just name dropping to get attention. I don’t think he’s at all serious about wanting to fight him, because he’s got a full plate in front of him with a rematch against Wladimir Klitschko and then a likely big money unification fight against Wilder.
It’s in Fury’s best interest to fight unification fights, not make simple title defenses against guys like Joshua. Hearn needs to sit down and realize that out of all the guys that mentioned Joshua’s name recently, the only serious guys that are really interested in fighting him are Chisora, Malik Scott and Parker. I don’t think any of those fighters are what Hearn has in mind for Joshua. He obviously needs the big money fighters like Fury, Wilder and Haye in order to get a big stadium/pay-per-view fight in the UK for Joshua.
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