Anthony Joshua seemed amused at learning that Deontay Wilder is predicting that he will steal the show from him by knocking out his opponent, Joseph Parker, in their December 23rd card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) laughed, saying that UK fighters handle their business. Hopefully, the underperforming 34-year-old former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua doesn’t fail in his headliner against Otto Wallin (26-1, 14 KOs) in their twelve round fight at the Kingdom Arena.
To read into this, you can argue that Joshua doesn’t want to put any more pressure on his shoulders than there already is now because he tends to mentally crumble when he’s put in high-stress situations.
Does Joshua still have it?
More than anything, AJ can’t afford to come unglued mentally, especially now with all the work that he recently did with the four days in the darkened room bit.
The last thing Joshua needs is to start making bold predictions about his fight with Wallin, saying he’s going to outdo Deontay’s likely highlight reel KO in the co-feature bout against the capable Joseph Parker.
Joshua needs to silence his doubters by beating Wallin in an impressive fashion, and look good against the big upset-minded Swede. Granted, Wallin isn’t one of the talented killers in the heavyweight division, but he’s a major threat to Joshua, who has lost his way since his loss to Andy Ruiz in 2019.
Joshua still has punching power and hand speed, but his self-belief is no longer there, and he seems like he’s afraid to let his hands go the way he used to when he was bombing his opposition out with flurries during his best years, 2013 to 2018.
If Joshua loses this fight, not even his promoter Eddie Hearn, will be able to resurrect him to continue peddling his fights to UK audiences on PPV. It would be Joshua’s fourth loss in his last eight fights, making it clear that he’s ready to be consigned to the scrap heap.
“Good luck to him. Do your thing. I’m from the UK, and we stand on our business,” said Anthony Joshua to the media when told that Deontay Wilder predicted that he would steal the show with a knockout of Joseph Parker on December 23rd on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card.
“I’m going to do mine, and he’s going to do his. What more can I say? I don’t really need. I don’t talk like that. I’m not a talker. I handle my business. I’m going to do my thing. I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.”
