By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) is under the impression that a win over Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) will make him “a legend” immediately in the sport of boxing when they fight each other on April 29 on Sky Box Office PPV at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Wladimir is about to turn 41, and the last guy that beat him, Tyson Fury, isn’t perceived as a legend. Joshua might not realize that Wladimir is not looking lately, and you can argue that he likely would be beaten by at least 10 if the current top heavyweights.
Why then will Joshua be transformed into a legend by beating an aging heavyweight like Klitschko? I think Joshua needs to come back down to earth and get his feet back on solid ground. Beating Wladimir at this point is no big deal. Fury already showed that.
Wladimir couldn’t pull the trigger on his shots. He fought like an old man in that fight. Wladimir hasn’t fought over a year. That definitely isn’t going to help him anyway. He’s probably not even going to be as good as he was in 2015, and believe, Wladimir was horrible in the Fury fight. Wladimir’s boxing skills looked BADLEY eroded.
Joshua said this to skysports.com about him becoming a legend after he beats Klitschko:
“This is a fight that can change (me) from champion to legend overnight,” said Joshua. “It’s the fight that will get the masses out and draw massive attention and they’re the type of fights that can change the way that people view you in your industry.”
Oh my, Joshua is starting to sound like his ego is getting out of hand already. I was hoping that Joshua wouldn’t go off the deep end and start making more of his wins over weak heavyweights than what it really is. It sounds like Joshua is already crowning himself as the best after a handful of victories over mediocre heavyweights like Eric Molina, Dominic Breazeale, Charles Martin and Dillian Whyte. It’s sad. I could understand it if Joshua had beaten some good heavyweights, but he hasn’t in my view. This is a very, very poor heavyweight division right now, so it’s not as if Joshua is accomplishing anything. He hasn’t fought Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz, Andy Ruiz Jr., Joseph Parker, Alexander Povetkin, Bermane Stiverne, Jarrell Miller or David Haye. Those are the only good heavyweights that I can see in the division at this time.
I wonder if Joshua said the bit about him becoming a legend overnight with a straight face. Come on, how do you become a legend after beating the 41-year-old Klitschko? I’m just saying. If beating Klitschko meant that you were automatically transformed into a legend, then guys like Ross Puritty, Corrie Sanders, Fury and Lamon Brewster would all be legends in the sport, because they all beat him. Wladimir never avenged his losses to Fury, Sanders or Puritty. He did avenge the loss to Brewster, but only after he was arguably softened up by Sergey Liakhovich first.
To me, a win for Joshua over Wladimir won’t mean much. Wladimir looked absolutely awful in his last fight against Fury in November 2015. The way that Wladimir looked was that of an old fighter that no longer could pull the trigger on his punches. Wladimir looked totally shot to me like an over-the-hill guy that was badly in need of retirement. The only thing that Joshua will be accomplishing in beating this version of Wladimir is adding his scalp to his resume. But he’s not going to be getting a prime scalp of Wladimir. He’s just going to get an old scalp.
“This is the start of that legendary campaign,” said Joshua. “It’s about me beating the right people to go down in history.”
Well, with the way that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is matching him right now, I don’t see him going down in history as the best of anything. Thus far, Joshua isn’t facing the good heavyweights. He’s more fringe level guys. Joshua’s wins over Molina, Whyte and Breazeale were over fringe contenders. That’s the reality. All were around 10 and below in the rankings.
Joshua’s win over former IBF champion Charles Martin was a victory over a fighter that many boxing fans saw as a paper champion. Joshua has not fought anyone yet, which is why it’s so, so sad that he’s blabbering about becoming a legend overnight if he beats the shot-looking Wladimir on April 29. The fight will make news, of course, because Wladimir was a champion for a long time in the heavyweight division, but it’s not going to mean a whole lot. Wladimir doesn’t seem to have anything left in the tank at this point in his career.
If I were to guess at how much of Wladimir’s talent he has left compared to when he was in his mid-20s, I’d say he’s probably around 30% of what he was earlier in his career. Wladimir’s accuracy, punch output, and stamina seem to have decreased. The only thing that Wladimir seems capable of still doing is moving around the ring. He’s capable of doing that, which might keep him from getting knocked out immediately by Joshua. However, I STILL don’t see Wladimir lasting long against Joshua even with his boxing skills.
The basic problem that Wladimir has is he’s not going to be throwing anything back at Joshua other than jabs. There’s no way that Wladimir will throw a right hand or a left hook, because he’s likely going to be afraid to get countered. If Joshua has nothing coming back at him to speak of, he’s going to be looking to take Wladimir’s head off with right hands and left hooks.
I figure that the first big power shot that Joshua lands to the chin of Wladimir will knock him out. It’s not that Joshua is so great. It’s that Wladimir’s punch resistance has never been good to begin with. All you need to do to verify that is to look at his fights against Sanders, Brewster, Puritty, Samuel Peter [first fight], and DaVarryl Williamson. I think David Haye would have knocked Wladimir out too if he’d been more confident and more aggressive.