By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn insists that with Anthony Joshua’s improvements in his game, he beat Deontay Wilder and “everyone” in the heavyweight division.
Obviously, Joshua is incapable of beating “everyone” in the division, and you can argue that he would lose to at least 10 to 12 heavyweights, and he’d be sent into retirement if Hearn dared to match him against the top guys.
In an interview today, Hearn was on his soapbox, making excuses for Joshua’s recent subpar performance against 39-year-old Robert Helenius. Hearn sounded like a person in complete denial about how badly AJ has deteriorated from the fighter he was earlier in his career.
The years haven’t been kind to Johua (26-3, 23 KOs), who hasn’t looked like the same fighter ever since Wladimir Klitschko dropped him with a scorching right hand to the head.
Joshua’s chin hasn’t looked the same ever since, as he’s been hurt by these heavyweights in his subsequent fights: Andy Ruiz Jr, Carlos Takem, Alexander Povetkin, Oleksandr Usyk, and Dillian Whyte.
In the aftermath of that fight, Hearn did the best he could to prop Joshua up with soft match-making, but he was exposed when he finally put him in with a halfway decent heavyweight in Andy Ruiz Jr.
It’s been downhill ever since for Joshua, and Hearn has been forced to return to matching him against weak opposition.
“I think it’s difficult when you’ve got five days’ notice against a tall, rangy opponent, and there’s a lot on the line, you know?” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social, explaining why Anthony Joshua looked so timid & gunshy against Robert Helenius.
Heavyweights that likely beat Joshua
– Deontay Wilder
– Tyson Fury
– Oleksandr Usyk
– Andy Ruiz – *in good condition
– Frank Sanchez
– Jared Anderson
– Arslanbek Makhmudov
– Martin Bakole
– Zhilei Zhang
– Joe Joyce
– Daniel Dubois
– Bakhodir Jalolov
“In every interview, it’s like, ‘Wow, if you lost if you lose to Helenius, your career’s over.’ So you are probably going to be a little bit more careful. I think if he can be a little bit more aggressive with the style that he’s adopted, with the way he’s improved his feet, his movement, his defense, his distance, I think he beats everyone.”
As you can see, Hearn is completely deluded about Joshua’s ability or lack thereof. However, he likely knows that AJ has nothing left and is just a mental & physical wreck after ten years in the pro ranks. Hence, Hearn is in a mad rush to put Joshua in with Deontay & Tyson Fury before he gets beaten again, and his marketability continues to plummet.
It’s pretty clear that Joshua is cashing out against those two, and will be heading for retirement after he loses both of those fights.
“I’ve always thought that. I’m so confident he beats Deontay Wilder,” said Hearn. “The thing about Deontay Wilder and I like him, by the way, and I think he’s a really dangerous heavyweight, but there isn’t much substance to his resume or his wins.
“It’s like you’re really making AJ that big an underdog, you know. ‘It’s a one round fight.’ It’s like, really? So tell me Deontay Wilder’s wins, and I keep saying it. The only win on his resume is Luis Ortiz, who is aging and was winning the fight the first time and won every round in the second fight until he got knocked out.
“Tell me Deontay Wilder’s top 10 wins like Luis Ortiz, and that that’s it,” said Eddie Hearn.
