By Scott Gilfoid: At Tuesday’s Websummit, former heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko paid IBF/WBA champion Anthony Joshua a huge compliment by saying that he’s the best heavyweight on the planet.
Joshua is “hands down the world’s best heavyweight,” said Klitschko.
Well, if Joshua gets knocked out soon by one of the top heavyweights like Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder, Wladimir will get a chance to crown a new king to the heavyweight division.
Klitschko’s adoration of Joshua might not sit so well with the other top heavyweights in the division, like Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder. Fury beat Wladimir, and he did in a more one-sided manner than Joshua did last April. Granted, Fury has been out of boxing for 2 years now since his win over Wladimir in 2015, and he’s packed on a lot of pounds. But going by what Fury did to Wladimir compared to Joshua, it’s hard to say that AJ is the best heavyweight on the planet at this time.
”Been there, done that,” Klitschko said in remarking that he’s happy being retired from boxing, and not planning on staging a comeback to the sport.
Joshua has got a lot to prove still before he can be crowned the best heavyweight in the World. Wladimir appeared to take it easy on Joshua after he had him on the canvas in the 6th. It was the strangest thing to see. Joshua was down on the canvas in round 6 after taking a right hand to the head from Wladimir. But instead of looking to finish Joshua off, Wladimir backed off and let him survive the round. It wasn’t just the 6th round that Wladimir let Joshua survive. He didn’t go after Joshua in rounds 7-9, and those were rounds in which Joshua was completely fatigued and too tired to mount any kind of attack.
Wladimir could have finished Joshua off with ease if he’d put even a half-hearted effort to get him out of there. Wladimir has to know how vulnerable Joshua was in the fight. Wladimir has obviously seen the replay of the Joshua fight, and he knows he could have finished him off if he’d wanted to.
It was more of a victory for Wladimir than it was for Joshua, because the Steelhammer took it easy on him and didn’t look to finish him. I got the impression that Wladimir let Joshua win out kindness. It looked that way to me. The thing is, Joshua has got to be able to win on his own, and I don’t think he’s got what it takes to beat the top heavyweights in the division like Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Jarrell Miller, Luis Ortiz and possibly Joe Joyce.
Deontay Wilder is going to be a real problem for Joshua when he time comes for them to face each other. Wilder has a better outside game, and he’s got a huge right hand that he can drop on Joshua at any time. Joshua is more of a medium distance to close range fighter. Joshua hits hard from short distances, and that’s not going to help him against Wilder.