By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua will be fighting at Wembley Stadium on September 22 this year against Alexander Povetkin and then on April 13 in 2019 against potentially Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury or Dillian Whyte. It’ll be one of those three that will get the April 13 date next year. Wilder has been offered a contract to fight Joshua on April 13, which he hasn’t accepted yet.
If Wilder chooses not to accept the $15 million offer, then it’s highly likely that Joshua will fight a rematch with Whyte if he defeats Joseph Parker on July 28. If Parker wins that fight, then a rematch between him and Joshua will be a likely fight for April 13. Either of those opponents would be disappointing for the British boxing fans, because they want Joshua to fight Wilder in a unification match. But it’s hard to get that fight made when Wilder is being offered $15 million for a fight that could bring in $100 million. Who gets the other $85 million if Wilder agrees to the $15 million offer from Hearn? Obviously the flat fee offer Hearn is giving Wilder isn’t going to work. Hearn is either going to need to give Wilder a percentage deal or forget about ever making a fight between him and Joshua.
It’s a gamble on Joshua’s part to fight at Wembley Stadium in his next two fights, because the crowd might not be there for either of those fights. Joshua drew 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in April 2017 for a fight against 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, but that was against a popular former world champion. There’s a big difference between facing Wladmir at Wembley Stadium and fighting the likes of Povetkin, Dillian Whyte or Joseph Parker. I’m not including Tyson Fury’s name in the mix because I think it’s completely unrealistic to assume that he’ll be ready to fight Joshua next April at Wembley Stadium. Fury is still too fat and ring rusty for him to take the fight against Joshua next April. I hate to say it but I do not see Joshua vs. Povetkin bringing in anywhere near 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London. I see the fight pulling in between 60,000 to 70,000 fans. Even those numbers will likely be dependent on ticket prices. If the tickets are priced too high, it’s likely the boxing fans will stay home in huge numbers and focus on doing something else on the night.
The fighter that IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants is WBC champion Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs), but that fight might not a realistic option due to the flat fee offers that are being made to the American heavyweight. Wilder wants parity with his purse in demanding a 50-50 split. Given that Hearn doesn’t even rate Wilder as being deserving of a percentage deal, it makes the fight very difficult to make.
It might be a bit of a waste to have the 28-year-old Joshua’s next fight against Povetkin (34-1, 24 KOs) at Wembley Stadium, as that’s not really a huge fight. Povetkin is looking very, very old at 38-years-old, and he’s not impressed in his last three fights against David Price, Christian Hammer and Andriy Rudenko. Povetkin has lost something from his game since his 6th round knockout victory over former world title challenger Johann Duhaupas in 2016. Povetkin has only fought once in the UK, and that was an unimpressive 5th round knockout of the past his best David Price on March 31 on the undercard of Joshua’s controversial fight against former WBO champion Joseph Parker at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Povetkin was given a standing eight count after being caught by a left hook by Price in the 3rd round. While Povetkin was able to regroup and score a stoppage in the 5th, it was not a good performance from the 2004 Olympic gold medalist from Russia. Had Price continued to throw punches in the 4th and 5th, he clearly would have knocked Povetkin out. When you’re getting stopped by guys like Price, it’s a sign that you don’t belong fighting the top guys in the heavyweight division. It’s too bad Povetkin didn’t have to earn his World Boxing Association mandatory status by beating a good heavyweight instead of Christian Hammer. The WBA made it too easy for Povetkin to become Joshua’s mandatory.
”The opportunity to fight in such an iconic stadium is normally a once in career opportunity, so to be given the chance to fight there again is amazing. Wembley just added a fourth lion to the den,” Joshua said to skysports.com.
Hearn is expected to announce Povetkin as Joshua’s challenger next week for September 22 at Wembley Stadium. But what Hearn likely won’t be ready to announce is the opponent for Joshua’s April 13 fight at Wembley Stadium. In an effort to get the UK boxing fans excited, it’s predictable that Hearn will float Wilder’s name as one of the potential options for him to fight on April 13. Hearn will likely point out to the boxing media that the April 13 fight is there for Deontay to take, as long as he’s willing to accept the $15 million flat fee that he supposedly previously agreed on. What Hearn won’t say is that the fight will potentially bring in over $100 million. If Hearn does that it’ll make his $15 million offer to Wilder for the Joshua fight look incredibly unfair to the boxing world, because that would amount to an 85-15 split of the revenue.
Hearn might be kidding himself that the British boxing public will turn out in huge numbers to see him fight Povetkin in September and then potentially Whyte in April of next year. I don’t think either of those fights will get anywhere close to selling out Wembley Stadium. I mean, you need to see those two mismatches from the fan’s perspective. Those are fights that promise to be mismatches due to the lack of size and talent of Povetkin and Whyte. Neither of them has done anything in their recent fights that they’ll do anything but lose and lose badly to Joshua. If they had to be someone good to get a title shot against Joshua, then you could assume that they might do well and hold their own during the fight. I haven’t see that from either of them unfortunately. Since his earlier loss to Joshua in 2015, Whyte, 30, has been padding his record against shot fighters like Malcolm Tann, Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne, Robert Helenius and Dereck Chisora. Whyte’s next fight will be against former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker on July 28 at the O2 Arena in London, England. I’d like to think that Parker will be given a fair shake when it comes to the judging for the fight, but I can see a controversial 12 round decision going against him from a thousand miles away. I hope that’s not the case because it would be very ugly, especially given the officiating of his last fight against Joshua on March 31 in Cardiff, Wales.
In Joshua’s recent fights, he’s been competing at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales against Joseph Parker and Carlos Takam. The fights drew big numbers, but both of them had highly controversial elements that tainted the results for the fight. In terms of the huge crowds both fights brought in, they were successful money makers. The fights themselves were unsatisfactory with the way they ended. Parker was unable to fight on the inside the entire fight due to the referee breaking the action when he would work his way in close. The referee was pulling both fighters apart, and this hurt the shorter Parker much more than it did the 6’6” Joshua.