By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is a priority for his fighter IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua later this year in November if the two of them win their next fights. Fury will be facing Wladimir Klitschko in a rematch on July 9 in Manchester, while Joshua could be fighting in June or July depending on Hearn’s ability to dig him up a suitable opponent for yet another PPV fight on Sky Box Office.
The fighter that Hearn DOESN’T WANT for Joshua right now is the hard hitting David Haye despite the keen interest that Haye is showing in that fight. Haye sees weakness in the slow-moving, bulky Joshua, and he feels he can exploit that weakness if given the chance.
Hearn doesn’t want to give Haye that chance though, at least not now. Hearn says he wants to wait until 2017 before he lets Haye get a chance at fighting Joshua. The priority for Joshua and Hearn is the 6’9” Fury due to him having two major titles in the WBA and WBO belts he holds. However, I suspect that the real reason Hearn fancies Fury as Joshua’s November opponent is because Fury doesn’t have the punching power or the hand speed that Haye posseses.
You have to figure that whoever Hearn shows interest in putting in with Joshua, they’re perceived as an easy mark that is vulnerable to him. I mean, you’re not hearing Hearn chomping at the bit in lining Joshua up against the hard hitting and blazing fast WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, are you? Deontay has the size and the one-punch power to blast Joshua into smithereens with a single shot to the head. If that would happen, Hearn would be stuck with a former Olympic gold medalist with a tarnished pro record in Joshua.
“I think that’s unrealistic, as much as Haye wants the fight, he knows it’s a proper fight and that fight is going to build and grow,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “Tyson Fury is our pick before that because he has got the belts, the other two belts, and I think a unification fight has to be a priority. Haye against Joshua is a massive fight, probably realistically next spring or summer but Fury could be one for 2016.”
I smell fear from Hearn. I think he doesn’t want Joshua anywhere near Haye right now after he saw Haye’s quick knockout win over Mark De Mori last January. Before that fight, Hearn seemed highly interested in putting Joshua in with Haye. But after that fight, things chanced all of a sudden. I think it’s fear. My guess is if Haye is still fighting at a high level in 2017, we’ll hear another excuse from Hearn, saying that the Haye fight is “unrealistic” because WBC champion Deontay is the target.
I think it’ll be one of those situations where Hearn waits Haye out until he’s old man and looking like a shot fighter. At that point, Hearn will line up the fight and Joshua will put Haye out of his misery by knocking him out and sending him into retirement. I think it’ll all depend on how Haye ages. If he’s still looking good in the next five years, then I see the timeline moved back further still until he’s Shannon Briggs’ age at 44 or so. I mean, Hearn can extend this thing as long as he wants because Joshua is now the IBF champion, and he can milk that baby for a long, long time, especially if Hearn is being strategic in picking out only beatable guys that Joshua can absolutely smash on size alone rather than talent.
“I’ve chatted to Peter Fury about it, we know how big the fight is and both guys, both camps, really fancy their chances in the fight. So I think that’s a fight you will see sooner rather than later,” Hearn said about a Joshua vs. Fury fight in November. “We’re going to go in June or July, then Klitschko-Fury is on July 9 and if Tyson wins that fight he will be looking to go November time and so will we.”
Fury is obviously going to jump at the cash out fight against Joshua in November because he needs to get a huge payday before he faces someone good and gets whipped. I think Fury can beat Joshua without any problems as long as he keeps his eyes open, jabs, and doesn’t stand stationary like we saw from the flat-footed Charles Martin last Saturday night.
Martin fought a horrible fight. If I had been in his corner, I would have been reading him the riot act and snapping him out of the sleep mode that he was in. Fury doesn’t need my coaching nearly as bad because he’s smart enough to know that he would need to move, jab and lean away from Joshua’s shots.
Joshua doesn’t have much flexibility in his upper body due to all the excess muscle he’s carrying around, so we’re not going to see him landing any long punches at Fury because he’s too bulky. Fury would see Joshua load up for one of his right hands from a mile away, and he would have no problems getting out of the way of the shot and then countering him with a hook or a straight right.
Hearn will probably get his wish by having Joshua face Fury in November, but I see this backfiring on Hearn with Fury giving the slow-moving Joshua a boxing lesson he won’t soon forget. I think it’ll be one-sided with Joshua looking confused.
One thing that could get in the way of a Joshua vs. Fury fight is if Wladimir Klitschko is able to come up with enough aggression to defeat Fury in their rematch on July 9 in Manchester. I see that as a very real possibility. Wladimir is going to be throwing a lot more power shots in this fight than he did in their past fight in November of last year, and I have my doubts whether Fury will be able to handle Wladimir’s powerful right hands.
Yeah, Wladimir is old as heck at 40, but the power is still there in his shots. He just needs to have the courage to use his power by throwing punches. As timid as Wladimir looked last November, I’m not sure if he can get the courage needed to let his hands go. If he does, then he has a good chance of knocking Fury clean out. I don’t think Wladimir will bother fighting Joshua if he beats Fury. Instead, I see Wladimir reverting to form and going back to milking his titles like he was doing in the past.
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