By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn is upset at his fighter Anthony Joshua being doubted by fans and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum about him being the elite heavyweight that he’s always claimed him to be.
It’s easy to understand where Arum is coming from in saying that Joshua ISN’T an elite heavyweight because he clearly isn’t. Joshua is a good basic heavyweight, but he’s nowhere elite, you can’t be getting knocked out by an overweight And Ruiz Jr, and almost losing to a shot 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko.
You got to applaud Arum for his Howard Cosell style of telling-it-like it is about Joshua or any fighter for that matter. Arum isn’t the type to blow smoke up the wazoo of Joshua, telling fibs to make him seem better than he actually is.
Over the years, Joshua has been hurt many times during his fights, and not always against punchers.
Joshua’s best wins:
- Carlos Takam
- Wladimir Klitschko – 41-years-old
- Kubrat Pulev – 40-years-old
- Alexander Povetkin – 40-years-old
- Andy Ruiz Jr – weighed 283-lbs
- Dillian Whyte – Fought with a shoulder problem
- Charles Martin – a one-hit wonder
- Dominic Breazeale
- Eric Molina
For ages, Hearn has banged on about how great Joshua’s resume is, but the fact is, it never was nearly good as he said it.
“He may have one of the best resumes in boxing,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show.
“So now we’re debating whether he’s actually any good. I mean, I just It baffles me that this guy doesn’t get more credit.
“All he’s ever done is worked as hard as he can, fighting the very best and never got a challenge or a mandatory or anyone in the division.”
Joshua’s best win, the one that Hearn uses to validate him as a great, was against an inactive and old 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, who hadn’t fought in two years since his loss to Tyson Fury in 2015.
When you’re as old as Wladimir was and you’re coming off a 2-year layoff and a loss to Fury, where’s the gain for Joshua in defeating him at that stage of his career?
In ten years from now when Joshua is 41 and perhaps coming off a 2-year layoff like Wladimir, would his opponent deserve credit if they knock him out? I don’t think so, which is why it’s silly for Hearn to make a big production about Joshua’s win over Wladimir.
I mean, Joshua waited long enough to finally fight Wladimir, and you got him literally at the tail-end of his career when he was shot to bits.
For Arum, his image of Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) has been tarnished by his knockout loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019.
Arum sees Ruiz as a non-puncher, yet he was able to drop Joshua three times and force him to quit in the seventh round in their first fight in June 2019.
To his credit, Joshua avenged his loss to Ruiz, beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in their second fight in December 2019.
With that said, Joshua, 31, looked scared the entire fight, adopting the negative fighting style that former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko had utilized during the last thirteen years of his career.
Moreover, Ruiz had trained properly for the rematch and looked fat in weighing in at a tubby 283.5 lbs. He wasn’t fit to be fighting anyone, let alone Joshua, who was using the Klitschko defensive style of fighting to avoid getting his chin checked again.
Joshua has only fought once since his victory of Ruiz, being the 40-year-old Kubrat Pulev last December.
Pulev looked old, shot, and non-deserving of a title shot against anybody. So, it’s difficult to get excited about Joshua’s win over Pulev due to his advanced age and the way he fought throughout.