By Scott Gilfoid: With heavyweight champion Tyson Fury pulling out of his scheduled October 29 rematch against Wladimir Klitschko, Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is looking to slide into the picture and match his fighter IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua against the 40-year-old Wladimir.
Hearn says the 26-year-old Joshua is all for the fight against Klitschko, and he thinks that he fancies his chances of beating the aging Ukrainian boxing star. Goodness knows, Wladimir has looked absolutely dreadful in his last two fights against Fury last November and Bryant Jennings in April of 2015.
Whether he’s looked bad because aging or simply he being in with guys with boxing styles that were hard to figure out is the big question.
“Reached out to @Klitschko team – we love the fight! @anthonyfjoshua,” said Hearn on his Twitter.
It’s bad news for the sport with Fury once again not being able to fight Wladimir. The sanctioning bodies seem frozen, and unable or unwilling to do what many fans feel is the right thing by stripping Fury of his belts.
I don’t know that Wladimir will take a fight against Joshua right now. Wladimir just got the news on Friday that Fury has pulled out of their October 29 fight due to him being “medically unfit to fight” on that date. I think it stands to reason that Wladimir will take a wait and see approach to the Fury fight to see if it can still happen in two or three months from now. If the fight can be rescheduled, then I Wladimir will go that route. Wladimir still needs to avenge his loss to Fury from last November.
“I reached out to Bernd [Boente] last night and if there is a chance of a unification fight with AAJ and Klitschko, we’d be all over it,” said Hearn to the mirror.co.uk. “I’m guessing they have a whole lot of mess to sort out, but AJ is keen to fight in November or the immediate fight after.”
I kind of doubt that the sanctioning bodies will strip Fury so quickly and let Wladimir fight Joshua for his IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles. I get the sense that the sanctioning bodies like having Fury as their heavyweight champion. Unfortunately for them, Fury hasn’t been defending his titles. He’s just been sitting on them like a mother hen without getting into the ring and fighting. That’s bad for the sanctioning bodies to have a champion who can’t or won’t fight, and it’s negative for boxing fans. They don’t get to see Fury fight. We don’t know if Fury’s win over Wladimir from last November was a fluke thing or an indication that Fury is better than what boxing fans thought he was. I think it’s more of a case of Wladimir being old and no longer the fighter he was 5,000 yesterday’s ago.
Fury barely beat an unmotivated looking Wladimir by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision in Dusseldorf, Germany. That was a weird fight. If Wladimir had thrown five more punches per round, he probably would have won the fight. He just was just not willing to let his hands go on the night. Fury was moving constantly in circles around the ring on the night.
When Fury would stop to fight, he was throwing weak jabs in front of him over and over again. Fury wasn’t trying to land the jabs. He just wanted to keep Wladimir from throwing punches, and it worked. Wladimir kept waiting for Fury to stop throwing his repetitive jabs, and he ended up waiting all night and doing nothing. What Fury was doing was stuff that you’d see from an unskilled novice that just put on the gloves.
Just why Wladimir was so confused by this tactic is the big question. My theory is that Wladimir has been fighting so many fighters with incredible boxing skills, he just was not ready for an amateur tactic from Fury with him throwing nonstop jabs into the air. Believe me, if Fury had been facing a talent like Deontay Wilder, he would have thrown one of his scorching right hand bombs over the top of one of Fury’s air jabs, and likely knocked him clean out. Wilder wouldn’t have been tied in knots mentally at seeing Fury throw flicking air jabs. Wilder is a more practical fighter. He would have taken all 10 seconds to dissect what Fury was doing inside the ring before deciding, ‘the heck with this, I’m knocking this guy out with a right hand.’
“Hopefully, he [Fury] can get back in the ring soon and fight Klitchsko but, if not, I spoke to AJ [Joshua] last night and said ‘you could jump in and fight Klitschko’. He said ‘let’s do it’,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “I think he believes that Klitschko is certainly there for the taking and it’s a great fight.”
Joshua is going to be fighting on November 26 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Hearn is talking about putting Joshua in with his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker on that date. That’s the likely fight that Joshua will be taking rather facing Klitschko. If I were Hearn, I wouldn’t be assuming that Joshua beats the 6’4” Parker, because this guy can really punch like no tomorrow. Parker can move as well, and he’s young at 24. The guys that Joshua has been beating recently, Dominic Breazeale, Charles Martin and Dillian Whyte, didn’t have the overall boxing skills, power and talent to deal with Joshua. Whyte came into the fight with Joshua injured with a shoulder problem, and he further hurt it after staggering Joshua in the 2nd round. With Breazeale and Martin, they never threw any punches. They were just standing around looking timid. Parker isn’t like that. He’s going to get his money’s worth when he fights Joshua by bouncing some of his big right hands and left hooks off the chin of the British fighter.
“I don’t feel like they will strip Tyson Fury just yet and I hope they don’t. We want the winner of that fight, Fury against Klitschko, and we want to fight Tyson Fury really,” said Hearn.
I think Hearn is right about the sanctioning bodies not stripping Fury. I believe they’re going to wait and see if Fury will be able to reschedule for the Klitschko fight. There’s too much money in the Fury-Klitschko rematch, and Fury is a popular guy due to his personality and usually entertaining fighting style. I mean, Fury wasn’t entertaining in the Klitschko fight because he was playing it safe, but in his past fights, he’s been entertaining. I hate to say it, but Joshua doesn’t have the personality that Fury has going for him. Joshua is low-key, and his face is mostly expressionless other than an occasional smile. There’s not much emotion there, and he doesn’t really say much. Hearn seems to do all the talking for Joshua.