By Jeff Aranow: Last week, IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) and his promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that they had signed a multi-fight deal with Showtime Sports to have his fights televised in the United States.
The signing by Showtime looks to be a shrewd move to put them in a strong position to have a big future fight between Joshua and WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs), who is also signed with Showtime Sports.
By having Joshua now with their network, Showtime now guarantees that they’ll have one of these two heavyweight champions as the last man standing in the division once the smoke clears. The missing champion from the equation is interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz, who fights on HBO Boxing. However, at 37, it doesn’t look like Ortiz will be around for too much longer as a major player before he ages out.
Wilder, 30, has an important fight in less than two weeks from now against his WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) on May 21 at the Khodnyka Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia. Wilder needs to win that fight to put him in position for a big unification match-up with Joshua in the future.
Wilder had wanted to meet up with IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury for a unification fight in 2016, but Fury is saying he plans on retiring from the sport after his rematch with Wladimir Klitschko on July 9. With Fury out of the picture, the only big fights for Wilder is against Klitschko and Joshua. Showtime seems to realize this and that would appear to be one of the reasons why they added the 26-year-old Joshua with their network.
Joshua has a title defense coming up on June 25th next month against American Dominic Breazeale. Joshua is a heavy favorite to win. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn would likely to match him against Fury in November. If that fight doesn’t happen, then a match-up against the winner of the Wilder vs. Povetkin fight is always a possibility.
Hearn is talking about having Joshua defend his IBF title against the likes of Bermane Stiverne or Bryant Jennings in November. Joshua will need to face the winner of the Joshua Parker vs. Carlos Takam fight as well, but that’s a title defense that will likely come next year. Hearn isn’t in a hurry to have Joshua face either of those guys yet.