By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua’s time as the IBF/WBA heavyweight champion is about to run its course, according to Tyson Fury, who is picking WBO champion Joseph Parker to hand him his first career defeat on March 31.
I don’t get the impression that Fury is being mean-spirited by predicting that Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) will beat Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs). Fury has been making the same predicting for over a month now in picking the 26-year-old Parker over Joshua. This isn’t new from Fury. If it was new, he’d be picking Joshua to win.
It’s not a good thing for Fury if Parker defeats Joshua; because that means his big money fight against Big Joshua will be down the drain. I just thing Fury honestly believes that Parker is going to do a number on Joshua. All you need to do is look at how bad Joshua has been looking lately in his recent fights with Wladimir Klitschko and Carlos Takam, and you can see how he’s starting to lose it.
It could be success that is hurting Joshua, or perhaps it’s his weight lifting hobby that is causing him to lose his talent. Joshua also doesn’t take a punch well. Wladimir hit Joshua with a small handful of hard right hands and left hooks and he was ready to be knocked out in their fight last April. I’ll never understand why Wladimir didn’t look to finish Joshua off. Did he feel sorry for him? It looked like Wladimir didn’t want to wreck Joshua’s career, so he didn’t go for the coup de grace.
Parker will be heading into the lion’s dean in a little over 2 months to fight Joshua in front of a packed Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
“If I’m honest I fancy Parker, and that’s being gospel,” Fury said on the Pound for Pound podcast via ESPN.com. “He’s young and ambitious, he’s got fast hands, he hits hard and he fights excellent against opponents who stand still and don’t move.”
Joshua is the favorite to beat Parker by the boxing experts, but of course that doesn’t matter. The way that Joshua is looking right now, he seems to have reached the zenith of his career already and he’s starting to show signs of decline. Part of that could be how rich Joshua has become. He’s made a mountain of money in just 5 years of his pro career. Getting rich young sometimes isn’t a good thing.
Joshua is a straight ahead type of plodder type of heavyweight. He goes right after his opponents.
Joshua doesn’t know how to fight any other way but to go after his opponents. That style that Joshua uses is 100% perfect for both Joshua and the 29-year-old Fury. They both love straight ahead knockout artists that don’t know how to box. I know some boxing fans and writers think Joshua is a good boxer, but I totally disagree with them. Joshua does not know how to box. When was the last time you saw Joshua standing on the outside throwing a jab. He doesn’t do that. When Joshua does throw a jab, it’s a brief thing to get him ready to ramp up again for more 1-2 combinations or flurries of punches. Joshua doesn’t jab, and he can’t move well. Joshua likes to throw flurries at medium to close range, and he always throws uppercuts. A smart fighter with his head screwed on straight will take away Joshua’s predictable uppercuts by clinching him on the inside to prevent him from being able to get that shot off. Joshua only throws his uppercuts with his right hand, so it’s pretty easy to take that away from him.
Fury is in the process of getting his license back by the British Boxing Board of Control this month. Promoter Frank Warren is working to help Fury get his boxing license back, and it’s likely to happen shortly. Once Fury has his license, then it’ll be a simple matter of him losing between 80 to 100 pounds of excess fat, and he’ll be ready to start fighting again. Fury still is still grossly overweight right now. The video of Fury hitting a water bag a couple of weeks ago was disturbing. Fury looked top heavyweight with his pendulous belly, and he was gasping for breath each time he’d throw a few shots. I can’t imagine how Fury let himself go to that extend. Anyway, Fury looks like he’s got many months to go before he’s in good enough condition to hang with Joshua. It’s interesting that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is so excited about getting Fury into the ring with AJ in the summer. I don’t want to be a mind reader, but it sure looks like Hearn is counting on Joshua taking advantage of Fury while he’s in such sorrowful shape.
“I’m going to make a bold statement here,” Fury said. “If I get the AJ fight, I’m going to make it a four-round fight. Either he’s going to go or I’m going to go. He can’t underestimate my power and my size and strength. I want to make it a war. I want to make it a Tommy Hearns vs Marvin Hagler remake, but in the heavyweight division,” said Fury.
I hope for Fury’s sake that he’s just kidding about wanting to make it a war against Joshua. That’s never going to work for Fury to try and beat Joshua. The way to beat Joshua for Fury is to frustrate him and make him work hard for an entire round. Joshua isn’t made for high pace fighting. Joshua was put together. Joshua is strictly a guy that is capable of fighting hard for a short period of time followed by 3 to 4 minutes of resting to get his second wind. If Fury can get Joshua tired the way Wladimir and Takam did, then he can possibly knock him out. If Fury puts the fight off with Joshua for a year until 2019, and if he gets 6 or 7 fights under his belt by next year, I think he’ll have a chance of beating him. But it doesn’t look like Fury is going to take his time before facing Joshua. I think Fury is looking to cash out in a big money fight with Joshua in the summer. Fury can then take the loot that he gets from the Joshua fight and go back into retirement.