By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will soon be taking part in the biggest fight in British boxing history in his match against 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport. Hearn says the Joshua-Klitschko fight will be the biggest fight in the history for British boxing, even though there have seemingly bigger fights like Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson and Nigel Benn vs. Chris Eubank.
The Joshua-Klitschko match will be taking place on April 29 on Sky Box Office pay-per-view at the sold out 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium in London, England. Hearn says the entire country will take notice of the fight. This is surprising because the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight isn’t being talked about in places like the U.S other than with hardcore boxing fans. Even the hardcore fans don’t seem all that interested in the fight. The basic problem is that Joshua is fighting an old guy in Wladimir, who hasn’t fought in 2 years, and who lost his last fight to a very average fighter in Tyson Fury.
If Wladimir hadn’t lost to Fury, and if he’d been busy the last 2 years, the fans would be a lot more interested in this match-up. Hearn is doing his job talking up the Joshua-Klitschko. He’s the promoter, so he’s got to talk it up, but I just wonder if he really believes half of what he’s saying about the fight, because it’s really not a big deal to a lot of fans.
It’ll be a big deal if Wladimir beats Joshua. Yeah, a second fight between them at that point would be HUGE. There would be tons of fans that would perk up and start showing interest in the two of them, but right now the April 29 fight shapes up to be a mismatch between a young guy ni the 6’6” Joshua and an old timer in Wladimir.
“We’ve got 90,000 people in the biggest fight in British boxing history,” said Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to IFL TV about the Joshua-Klitschko fight on April 29. “Tell me another one. He becomes the biggest star in British sport, and the biggest star in world boxing,” said Hearn about the future of Joshua if he beats the 41-year-old Wladimir this month. “We’re just starting. We’re just scratching the surface. This is the start of fighting in other countries. This is the start of bringing heavyweight boxing back to the masses. Now you have people walking down the street. You have people talking about boxing. You have people talking about Anthony Joshua-Klitschko at Wembley. Let us do our thing and understand there is a wide world out there to exploit this wonderful sport and we’re going to do it. He’s smart enough not to say, ‘I want to be a billionaire in boxing.’ That’s not the goal. He did an interview with a magazine and they said, ‘Do you think you could be boxing’s first billionaire,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, that would be nice,’” said Hearn.
The billionaire remark that Hearn made is about Joshua telling GQ that he wants to be the first billionaire boxer, and he feels he can if he starts making bigger paydays. The comment didn’t go over too well with a lot of boxing fans, as many of them saw it as a sign that Joshua is thinking more about money and less about sport at this point in his career.
When you hear Joshua talking about wanting to become a billionaire, and then see him dining on weaker opposition like Eric Molina, Charles Martin and Dominic Breazeale, it comes across like he’s not interested in fighting the best and being the best. Hearn would likely argue that Joshua is fighting the best in facing Klitschko on April 29.
That doesn’t work for a lot of boxing fans, because they don’t see Wladimir as the best any longer. He was definitely one of the best for many years. I don’t know if Wladimir was truly ever the best, because his brother Vitali Klitschko was fighting up until 2012, and I think he was the better fighter of the two. After Vitali retired, Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz emerged, and I think both of them are better fighters than Wladimir. Joshua isn’t fighting them though. He’s fighting 41-year-old Wladimir.
“I’m telling you right now Wladimir Klitschko is going to try to get into Anthony Joshua’s head over the next couple of weeks, particularly in fight week. You got to keep your head in this fight, inside the ring and outside the ring. This is massive. This is a fight that whole of Britain will stop for, whether they’re watching it on pay-per-view, whether they’re in the arena, whether they’re listening to it on the radio, whether following it on social media. I’m telling you now; the country will stop for this fight. Look at Deontay Wilder, how many fights has he had? He ain’t fought nobody like Klitschko. This is Klitschko’s 29th world title defense. This is Joshua’s 19th fight. People don’t progress like this. People don’t go in 3 years from their debut to a unification for the heavyweight championship of the world. You’ve got to give this kid props, let me tell you. He lives and breathes for his job and the sport,” said Hearn.
Hearn talks up Burns vs. Indongo fight
In a fight promoted by Eddie Hearn this Saturday night, WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns will be facing IBF light welterweight champion Julius Indongo at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Both titles will be on the line for this unification fight. This is perhaps the toughest fight for the 34-year-old Burns since his lost to Omar Figueroa two years ago in 2015. Burns has fought decently but badly flawed fighters since then. Burns won the WBA title against Michele Di Rocco in 2016, and he successfully defended it recently last October against Kiryl Relikh.
“This is just a huge fight, a huge event,” said Hearn about the Burns-Indongo fight. “The amount of great nights we’ve had out of (Ricky Burns) has been sensational but, by his own admission, this is the biggest night of his career.”
Indongo is too inexperienced to say whether this is a great fight. The only notable win for Indongo since he turned pro in 2009 was his 1st round knockout victory over Eduard Troyanovsky last December. Other than that win, Indongo has done precious little during his career. He won the IBF title off of Troyanovsky, but the Russian fighter was seen as a paper champion by some boxing fans.
Indongo didn’t beat Terence Crawford, who a lot of the fans view as the very best in the 140lb division today. Indongo only represents a door for Burns. If he can get past Indongo, then he could be facing Adrien Broner later this year. That’s a fight that would generate money in the UK. It probably won’t do much in the States, because Burns isn’t well known over there.
“In Julius Indongo, we have one of the very best, one of the most dangerous fighters, and punchers, in world boxing,” said Hearn.
Indongo can punch. I don’t know if he’s the biggest puncher in the division or not. Crawford is probably a better puncher, but Indongo definitely can punch when he lands his shots clean like he did against Troyanovsky. There’s no question that if Indongo connects with a perfect shot on the chin of Burns, he’s going to know about it. I suspect that Burns is going to be playing it safe for as long as he can on Saturday night to make sure that he doesn’t get hit with one of Indongo’s big left hands.
Burns thinks he’s turned his career around and proven to people that they were wrong about thinking he’s over-the-hill. I think Burns is over the hill. The only thing is his promoter Hearn has matched him against fighters that he could even with him being 60-75 percent of the fighter that he once was. We’re not talking about great fighters. Burns’ career has been turned around in fights against Di Rocco, Relikh, Josh King and Prince Ofotsu. Those are not the best in the division. Those are just contenders. I’m not sure about King and Ofotsu. I rate those guys as 2nd tier fighters. I see Di Rocco and Relikh as fringe bottom level contenders.
“People wrote me off after back-to-back defeats (to Terence Crawford and Dejan Zlaticanin) but I’d be the first to admit if I didn’t have it anymore. I just wouldn’t be doing it,” said Burns.
I think boxing fans would still be writing Burns off if he’d been fighting good opposition in his last 4 fights instead of the guys that Hearn has been feeding him. Burns would likely lose to all of these guys from the 140lb division if Hearn had matched him against them: Rances Barthlemy, Viktor Postol, Felix Diaz, Humberto Soto, Adrian Granados, Adrien Broner, Terence Crawford, Frankie Gomez and Antonio Orozco.
