By Allan Fox: Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman thinks WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder has a little too experience for IBF/WBA champion Anthony Joshua for him to handle for when the two of them meet up inside the ring in 2018 or whenever. Thurman says he sees Joshua as being too green for him to beat Wilder at this point.
Wilder could face Joshua in the summer or perhaps later this year. Both guys want the fight. It’s only a matter of whether they can win their next matches, and if the fight can get negotiated. Wilder wants a 50-50 purse split. That could prevent the fight from getting made.
Thurman notes that 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko had Joshua down on the canvas in their fight last year. Thurman thinks Wladimir would have finished Joshua off if he was a little bit younger at the time the two fought each other. Joshua was hurt and gassed out from rounds 6 through 9, but Wladimir didn’t try and finish him off. Thurman thinks Wilder wouldn’t let Joshua survive the way Wladimir did in that fight.
“Joshua got put down [by Wladimir Klitschko], and then he got up and he won the fight,” said Thurman to Fighthub. ”I don’t think that would happen against somebody younger like the Bronze Bomber, because the way he pulled it out. He pulled it out with his second wind, and he kind of dug in and pulled it out. I don’t know that he’d have the time to wait for a second wind if he got dropped so early against the Bronze Bomber,” said Thurman.
There’s no doubt that if Wilder has Joshua hurt the way that Klitschko did, he’s going to go all out to finish him off. Wilder isn’t going to say to himself that maybe he should leave him out there and box for 12 rounds. It’s unclear what Wladimir was thinking. He was in England, and he should have known that it wouldn’t be safe to try and take the fight to the cards. Wladimir might have forgotten where he was, because he should have known that Joshua would get energized by the crowd. Besides that, if the fight had gone to the scorecards, you never know how the judges would score it. The boxing fans were cheering for Joshua each time he threw a punch.
Wladimir gambled and lost by allowing Joshua to survive after he knocked him down in the 6th. Wladimir thought it was wise to let Joshua hang on after he knocked him down in the 6th round. Joshua was hurt and gassed from round 6 to 9. It was Wladimir’s decision to let Joshua survive, and he paid for it by getting stopped in the 11th after AJ got his second wind. Wilder isn’t going to make the same mistakes Wladimir did. Even if he didn’t have Wladimir to learn from, Deontay Wilder still isn’t the type to let a hurt Joshua survive. Wladimir seemed to lose his brains in the Joshua fight. Wladimir fought like a novice rather than a guy with 20-years of pro experience and an Olympic gold medal under his best.
”I don’t think Deontay has ever been inside the ring with someone as big and strong, and has the capacity to punch the way Joshua can produce,” said Thurman. ”I do favor Deontay. I lean towards Deontay, because Joshua is a little green. I saw a lot of flaws in the Klitschko fight. I think Klitschko could have won if he was a little younger,” said Thurman.
Joshua gassed out after trying to knockout Wladimir in round 6. Before that point in the fight, Joshua was in command. He had it easy though the first 5 rounds. It was in the final seconds of round 5 that Wladimir hurt Joshua with several hard head shots after getting knocked down. Joshua thought he could finish Wladimir off after he got back to his feet. But Wladimir unloaded on Joshua and had him out on his feet as the round ended. In the 6th, Wladimir continued to unload on Joshua until dropping him. But oddly enough, once Joshua went down, Wladimir stopped throwing punches and let him survive. That was the strange about the fight. Wladimir was fighting all out until he had Joshua hurt, and then he started playing it safe. I don’t know of too many heavyweights that would do what Wladimir did after he had Joshua hurt. Wilder certainly won’t take it easy on Joshua if he gets him gassed out and hurt the way Klitschko did.
”I think Joshua should take a few defenses, and then take that fight [with Wilder],” said Thurman. ”It’s not a question of whether Deontay wants that fight. It’s more of a question of Joshua and Eddie Hearns over there,” said Thurman.
If the Wilder vs. Joshua fight doesn’t get made in 2018, it’s likely going to be the fault of British promoter Eddie Hearn. Joshua is Hearn’s golden goose for his Matchroom Sport stable. It’s clear that Joshua isn’t ready for a fight with Wilder. Joshua needs to discover what his best weight is. Right now, he’s trying to overpower guys by weighing in the 250s, and that’s not working for him. Joshua will probably fight at 243 for the Joseph Parker fight on March 31. If he has favorable results in winning the fight impressively at that weight, then he’ll stay there. But if Joshua labors again like he did in his last 2 fights in the 250s, then he’ll likely melt down to the mid-230s for his next fight.
Hearn will probably keep Joshua away from Wilder until he finds a weight that works for him. I suspect that Joshua won’t be ready to fight Wilder until 2019. Joshua can’t wait Wilder out until he gets old, because the two fighters are too close to same age. Wilder seems to be aging better than Joshua. If Joshua tries waiting 3 to 4 years before facing Wilder, he likely won’t be better for it. The best time for Joshua to fight Wilder is when he gets his weight perfect. Fighting in the 250s is not working well for Joshua. If he’s stubborn and unyielding about trimming down some of the muscle weight, then he’ll probably get knocked out quickly by Wilder. Right now, Joshua is too slow and muscular to last more than 1 or 2 rounds against a fighter with the power, quickness and size of Wilder.
Joshua has to worry about WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker right now before he can start thinking about a unification fight against Wilder. If Parker goes ballistic on Joshua the way Wladimir did in round 6, he may have him on his back counting stars.
