Hearn says Joshua’s next opponent could be revealed Tuesday

By Boxing News - 04/29/2019 - Comments

Image: Hearn says Joshua's next opponent could be revealed Tuesday 32-1, 21

By Tim Royner: Matchroom Sport chairman Barry Hearn says the announcement for Anthony Joshua’s next opponent for his U.S debut could be revealed on Tuesday for his June 1 fight at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Barry isn’t saying who the possible fighter will be, but many believe that it’s either Andy Ruiz Jr. or Michael Hunter. Both are from the U.S, but unfortunately neither has a fan base to speak of.

It would be big news if Eddie Hearn were to come up with a different name entirely for Joshua’s first fight in the United States by signing the likes of Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs) or Adam Kownacki. Ortiz’s promoter reportedly rejected a substantial offer from Hearn for the fight with Joshua. Hearn decided to move on after that and arguably go after lower hanging fruit that bring less to the table, but easier to sign. 2012 U.S Olympian Hunter (16-1, 11 KOs) is one of Hearn’s own fighters that he recently signed to his Matchroom Boxing U.S promotion.

Hunter isn’t believed to be the one that will be getting the fight though. He hasn’t been talking about it, so it’s likely that it’s going to be the 29-year-old Ruiz Jr. (32-1, 21 KOs) that gets the fight. He’s with Premier Boxing Champions. The way that the negotiations are taking a while to get finalized has a lot of fans believing it’s Ruiz Jr., because if it was Hunter, it would be a fight that would likely to have been finalized by now.

“I know he’s very close,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “I understand there’s every chance he’s going to make an announcement tomorrow, so it’s getting there. It’s difficult, it’s very difficult, the political world of boxing and the money they’re talking about.”

IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua’s June 1st title defense at Madison Square Garden will be streamed on DAZN in the United States, and shown on Sky Box Office in the UK. It’s important that Joshua’s promoters from the UK select an opponent that the American fans are interested in seeing. In the UK, it doesn’t matter who they match Joshua against. The fans go mad at seeing him fight anybody.

In the U.S, it’s different. To interest American fans, the promoters need to put together quality match-ups. The U.S fans are fickle. That’s not to say that many Americans won’t tune in to see Joshua’s debut on U.S shores on June 1, but far fewer will bother watching if he’s matched against a lesser heavyweight like the ones that are being mentioned as the two options. Hunter is a small heavyweight at 213 pounds, having only recently moved up in weight from the cruiserweight division. At that weight, Hunter could still easily fight at cruiserweight if he dehydrated the 13 lbs to get down to the 200 lb cruisrweight limit. As such, if the 245 lb. Joshua fights Hunter, he’ll be fighting a fighter that will look out of place inside the ring with him on June 1. We’re talking Jess Willard vs. Jack Dempsey in terms of the size mismatch between the 6’2′, 213 lb Hunter and the 6’5″ 245 lb Joshua. WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder weighed in at 213 lbs for his last title defense against Tyson Fury, but the difference with him is he can punch. Hunter is a light hitting volume puncher. He’s not going to be able to stand in front of Joshua and land his weaker shots for long without getting blasted out.

“AJ makes the final call, the final list is there and I believe the final decision will be known tomorrow,” Barry said.

Unfortunately, the 29-year-old Ruiz Jr. is chubby, and doesn’t look the part of a top level heavyweight. If Joshua and Hearn choose him, a lot of the U.S boxing fans who aren’t familiar with him or AJ or going to be stunned at the image of a fat person, that looked like he just climbed off a soft, fighting a tall muscular looking heavyweight. The question is, can Joshua impress American fans by fighting a heavyweight that looks as badly out of shape as Ruiz Jr?

You can make an argument that Joshua won’t impress anyone. He’ll be seen by some U.S boxing fans, but many of them won’t be too thrilled at this fight. Ruiz Jr. is well known in Southern California where he’s from, but he’s not hugely known around the rest of the U.S. If the States were as big as the UK in terms of population, the American fans would know who Ruiz Jr. is. The U.S is too big, and it’s harder for fighters to become well known nationally unless they’re super talented. Ruiz Jr. was recently beaten by Joseph Parker by a 12 round in December 2016. In Ruiz’s three fights since that loss, he’s beaten journeymen level heavyweights in Alexander Dimitrenko, Devin Vargas and Kevin Johnson. Ruiz Jr. would be a bigger name if he fought guys that had a chance of beating him like Parker, Adam Kownacki, Joe Joyce, Alexander Povetin, Kubrat Pulev and Dillian Whyte.