By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight title challenger Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs) recently missed out on a huge payday after suffering a shoulder injury, causing him to pull out of his October 28th title shot against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Pulev could have stayed silent about the injury and still taken the fight, but he did the right thing in pulling out. Pulev, 36, is ranked #5 with the World Boxing Association at this time. For Pulev to get a title shot in the near future, he’ll need cooperation on Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn’s part.
It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. Joshua has 3 big fights that he wants in 2018 against Joseph Parker, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury. If one of those guys drops out for any reason, Dillian Whyte or Jarrell Miller will be the likely replacement. Hearn has already said that Whyte is someone he would like to match against Joshua in 2018 if one of the three fighters on his list isn’t able to take the fight.
“He’s still, I would say, [one of the] top three or four heavyweights out there at the moment, so the AJ fight is not forgotten,” said Pulev’s promoter Nisse Sauerland to skysports.com. “Yes, of course. I don’t know if Joshua still wants it,” said Nisse when asked if Pulev still wants the Joshua fight. ”It’s a big fight for Pulev, anyone fighting against Joshua is now.”
Pulev is in a bad position right now to get a title shot. He’s ranked at No.5 with the World Boxing Association, and he’ll probably need to get pushed up to the No.1 spot for him to have any realistic chance of fighting Joshua. Pulev, 6’4 ½”, is too difficult of an opponent to be picked out by Hearn for Joshua to fight in a voluntary defense.
It’s going to take Pulev time to get to the mandatory spot unless he can speed up the process by beating a top 10 contender. It took Pulev 3 years to get to the mandatory position with the WBA recently after his 5th round knockout loss to former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.
Pulev won 5 fights in 3 years, mostly beating 2nd tier fodder opposition. Pulev did defeat Dereck Chisora by a 12 round decision in 2016. That win resulted in Pulev getting moved up to the top spot in the WBA rankings. Pulev needs another big win like the Chisora victory for him to get pushed to the top again if he wants to get ranked in a hurry.
Nisse says he’s interested in having Pulev fight for a world title against newly crowned WBA heavyweight champion Manuel Charr as well.
“With Charr winning, there’s a few options out there now. It’s a viable fight definitely for Pulev,” said Nisse.
That’s probably not a fight that Charr would be interested in. Tyson Fury is talking about wanting to fight Charr or Tony Bellew when he makes his comeback in 2018. If Charr commits to a difficult fight against Pulev, he could lose his WBA belt and miss out on a big fight against Fury.
If Pulev can’t get a title shot against Joshua or Charr, he’ll need to beat one of the top contenders in the division to get moved up quickly in the rankings.
Here are some good options for Pulev to fight in 2018 to get moved up the rankings:
• Carlos Takam
• Charles Martin
• Jarrell Miller
• Dominic Breazeale
• Luis Ortiz
• Oscar Rivas
• Alexander Dimitrenko
• Bryant Jennings
• Andy Ruiz
• Lucas Browne
• Dillian Whyte
• Hughie Fury