By Scott Gilfoid: Peter Fury, the trainer for former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, is picking Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) to beat IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) in their fight on April 29 on Sky Box Office pay-per-view from Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Peter says it’s up to how much Wladimir wants the fight, and how much he has left in the tank. Peter doesn’t know if Wladimir is just coming back for a payday or not. He wonders with Wladimir being out of the ring for two years just how much desire he still has for the game.
The time off for the 41-year-old Klitschko has not been entirely his own fault, however. Wladimir was waiting on a rematch against Tyson Fury for ages, as he suffered an injury during training that cause the fight to be delayed, and there was the delay in the negotiations for the fight. By the time that Fury finally pulled out of the fight altogether, almost two years had gone by. That’s not Wladimir’s fault.
“I’d have to slightly favor Klitschko because he has the experience but the question is whether Klitschko really has the desire to put his body through it all again, especially with the inactivity after being beaten by Tyson,” said Peter Fury to skysports.com. “It all depends on what sort of Klitschko turns up on the night, but if we get a 100 per cent Klitschko then I think Joshua will have problems.”
I don’t think Wladimir is going to win against Joshua. When you’ve been out of the ring for as long as Wladimir has, it’s difficult to be at your best for a big fight. This would be the toughest fight that Wladimir has had in many years, perhaps dating back as far as his 2003 fight against Corrie Sanders. Joshua isn’t as fast as Sanders or as dangerous, but he’s still the toughest opponent that Wladimir has had in many years.
The only way Wladimir wins this fight against Joshua is if he hits him with some solid shots in the first round or two that stuns him. In looking at some of Wladimir’s old fights against Jean Marc Mormeck and Ruslan Chagaev, he had a lot of punching power that could give Joshua major problems.
The Wladimir beat Mormeck and Chagaev would likely KO Joshua if he landed the same heavy shots against him that he did against those guys. Wladimir has a lot of punching power, and Joshua doesn’t have a steel chin. He can be hurt. In looking at the shots that Mihai Nistor and Dillian Whyte hurt Joshua with, he doesn’t take a shot very well. Joshua is just big and muscular, but his ability to take punishment is no better than anyone.
You can argue that Dillian Whyte has a better chin than Joshua. The punches that Whyte was hit with by Joshua and Dereck Chisora likely would have knocked Joshua out fairly quickly. The thing that Joshua has going for him is his size and power. If Wladimir can land his big power shots against Joshua early in the fight, then he could beat him.
The thing is Wladimir will have to show courage right away to go after Joshua before he gets a chance to land his own big shots, because if Wladimir waits too long, he’s going to wind up getting knocked out quickly. You can’t wait on Joshua because he’ll bum rush you and look to take you out immediately. It’s the bully mentality that Joshua has. He’s so used to beating up on the fodder opponents that his promoter Eddie Hearn has fed to him that he doesn’t know any other way of fighting.
Joshua hasn’t had to learn to be cautious in his fights, because his awful opposition has folded immediately after fighting timidly in the first round or two. Wladimir asks the question of what will Joshua do if his opponent doesn’t show fear, but the problem is that he showed nothing but fear in his last fight against Tyson Fury. That’s the main reason why Wladimir lost that fight. He wouldn’t attack Fury in an aggressive enough manner to give himself a chance of winning the fight.
When he failed to let his hands go, he was beaten. That was a winnable fight for Wladimir if he had chased Fury around the ring and nailed him with a right hand. But instead he walked around slowly, holding his right hand in a cocked position without throwing it. Wladimir looked totally petrified in the fight. Since Wladimir fought like that against the feather-fisted Fury, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he’s going to do even worse against Joshua, because he hits harder and has better hand speed. Joshua has the power to make Wladimir pay for every missed punch unlike Fury.
“I think this is the acid test for Anthony Joshua and if he comes through it he deserves maximum credit,” Peter said. “If Klitschko is hungry, on cue, and really wants those belts back it’s going to be one hell of a fight.”
If Wladimir really wants the fight against Joshua, he might be able to give him a lot of problems. We just don’t know. Wladimir obviously learned something from his sparring sessions with Joshua back in 2014. He probably learned what causes Joshua problems and what doesn’t. That sparring session must have given Wladimir enough confidence for him to want to fight Joshua, because if he was totally dominated, he wouldn’t want to be fighting him now.
Wladimir never fought Corrie Sanders or Ross Purity again after being knocked out by either of them. You can argue that those two guys had Wladimir’s number. But for Wladimir to want to fight Joshua after sparring him, he must see him as a fighter that he understands and that he can get the better of. Joshua is more robotic and technical than Corrie Sanders. With Sanders, it was all speed and devastating punching power.
Joshua is more robotic and mechanical. He’s definitely beatable. A good heavyweight that is willing to let his hands go with straight punches could knock Joshua out. We saw what Roberto Cammarelle, Erislandy Savon and Ivan Dychko all did to Joshua in the 2012 Olympics. They had no problems hitting him with straight punches to the head, and all of them got the better of him. They didn’t get the win, but they all fought well enough to deserve wins in the London Olympics.
If Wladimir hits Joshua with a left hook to the head with full power, I don’t see Joshua taking that shot. I see him either going straight down or staggering around the ring in a defenseless manner just like he was after Mihai Nistor hurt him in 2011.