By Scott Gilfoid: Recent world title challenger Gerald Washington turned down a chance to work as a sparring partner with IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) in order to soak up the knowledge of firmer undisputed heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) to get him ready for his April 29 fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Washington, 6’7”, wants to be around a heavyweight that has had longevity in the sport, and the 41-year-old Wladimir has definitely had that in his 20 years as a pro. Joshua, 27, is still relatively a newcomer to boxing, and he’s a not a very technical fighter like Wladimir. The hulking 6’6”, 250lb Joshua seems to win his fights on being bigger than his opponent, and he bowls them over with brute force. The style is working for Joshua right now, but in the future he could turn out to be another one of the many big Primo Canera type heavyweights that weren’t able to handle the more technical talents.
Picking Klitschko to spar with was a good move for the 34-year-old Washington, because he can learn a lot from him in a short time. Besides that, Wladimir doesn’t just bum rush his opponents like we often see rom Joshua. Wladimir breaks them down slowly with his jab and nullifies their offense with strategic clinching.
Jst finished up morning session with the obsessed legend @Klitschko and the young lion @gwgallonegro 👊🏾👊🏾#oddguy #champcamp #austria pic.twitter.com/3Se6CVsrdq
— Malik Scott (@MalikKingScott) April 11, 2017
It might not help Washington at all if he were to spar with Joshua and wind up with a bunch of bad habits that wouldn’t help him win in the future. You can argue that Washington would be the more technical of the two if he were to have joined up as Joshua’s sparring partner. Washington would be expected to play the part of Wladimir to get Joshua ready. It would be hard to learn as much from that experience for Washington in my opinion, because he wouldn’t be sparring a technical fighter.
“They asked me to come, and I would love to work with [Joshua] also, but I wanted to be around someone who has had longevity like the long-time champion,” Washington said to skysports.com.
Washington can always work with Joshua in the future as a sparring partner, as he’s likely going to be around another 10 years or more before he calls it a career. Wladimir is right at the end of his own career. If he loses to Joshua on April 29, it could be the end for him in boxing. He might not choose to continue if he gets knocked out really badly like he did against Corrie Sanders in 2003.
Washington has the chance to learn a lot from Wladimir during the short time that he’ll be working with him. There’s a lot for Washington to soak up from Wladimir. He obviously isn’t going to be able to learn everything that Wladimir knows in one training camp. It’s too bad Washington can’t have Wladimir as a part time trainer/mentor to his career in the future, because he’s got the physical tools to be a good heavyweight. Washington just needs to be refined to make his skillset less raw. Right now Washington is more of a diamond on the rough.
“It’s great to be around such a great champion like Wladimir, who’s been doing it for such a long time. You can feel the knowledge that is floating around and I’m trying to absorb as much as I can,” said Washington.
I think one of the bad things about Joshua is he’s not very technical. He’s just a big guy that has a lot of muscles and he jumps on his opponents early to get fast knockouts. He says he’s not paid for overtime in his boxing matches, but the fact of the matter is, Joshua isn’t someone that can box well. He’s more of a banger. This could haunt Joshua later on down the road when he starts getting older and/or when he faces technical fighters with great boxing skills that can drag him into the later rounds to expose his stamina. It’s a process.
You have to have good trainers that teach a fighter like Joshua the trade. I’m not sure if he has that. It’s also the mindset. Joshua seems in love with his power and quick knockouts. As such, Joshua doesn’t have to learn how to fight technically because he can overpower most of the guys that are being matched against him. The other thing is the match-making that’s being done for Joshua by his promoter Eddie Hearn. He’s not putting Joshua in with guys with talent that would force him to use technical skills to win. That’s bad news for Joshua, because he’s missing out on a lot of things he can learn from at this early point in his career.
Washington at 34 seems to be more of a student and more ambitious than Joshua in my view. Washington doesn’t want to just use his size to torpedo guys. He wants to learn how to be a good heavyweight that can last in the game for many years. If Washington can learn from Wladimir, he could be a successful heavyweight well into his 40s. Washington could make a good living during the next 10 years. If Washington were to fight like Joshua, it’s questionable whether he would be able to last more than 5 years at best as a top heavyweight, because that style of fighting is more for younger guys than for fighters that are getting up there in age. Joshua is going to need to learn how to be technical like Wladimir if he wants to extend his own career because you can only go so far fighting like Joshua.
Washington (18-1, 12 KOs) was beaten by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder by a 5th round knockout last February in a title shot for the 6’7” Vallejo, California native. Washington lost the fight, but he showed some excellent technical skills in the early going before he made the mistake of getting too close to Deontay and eating a right hand. If Washington had a full training camp with Wladimir under his belt, then maybe he wouldn’t have been hit with that right hand from Deontay that hurt him in the 5th.