Anthony Joshua could fight Joseph Parker early next year

Joseph Parker

THE major boxing event of 2018 should be a heavyweight unification between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.

After Luis Ortiz failed a drug test, Bermane Stiverne came in to fight WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder on November 4. Anthony Joshua defends the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles against Kubrat Pulev on October 28.

โ€œI think thatโ€™s going to be the big fight. But he [Wilder] needs to fight somebody. Joshua has boxed [Wladimir] Klitschko, now heโ€™s boxing Pulev. Wilderโ€™s boxed [Gerald] Washington, I know Joshua boxed [Eric] Molina but he dispatched him and Wilder had a tough fight with him. I wanted to see the Ortiz fight. So weโ€™ll see,โ€ promoter Eddie Hearn said.

Joshua is on a mission to unify the world titles. That means WBO titlist Joseph Parker is also in the frame. โ€œJoshua wants all the belts. So youโ€™ve got the Parker fight as well, but obviously Parker didnโ€™t look the best last time out. Itโ€™s a tougher fight to sell now. But itโ€™s still a unification fight and the WBC fight of course,โ€ Hearn said.

He added, โ€œThe fight I look for Parker is either Joshua in February/March or Tony Bellew, if he beats David Haye, thatโ€™s the two fights weโ€™ve got. Or Dillian Whyte. But he doesnโ€™t want to fight Dillian Whyte, another one who doesnโ€™t want to fight Dillian.โ€

Hearn feels there is no place in boxing Ortiz, who has failed his second drug test in recent years. โ€œIf you really were [taking medication], how could you not put it down on your form. Youโ€™ve been done before, you know youโ€™re being VADA tested, itโ€™s also a masking agent. It doesnโ€™t look great,โ€ said promoter, who has himself worked with Ortiz.

anthony joshua

โ€œThey were trying to get Joshua stripped of the WBA for not fighting him,โ€ he continued. โ€œIf youโ€™re taking medication you put it down. I canโ€™t believe anything else. Itโ€™s hard when youโ€™ve got an innocent fighter that may have made an innocent mistake but then heโ€™s being labelled a cheat and who knows. The bottom line is the responsibility lies with the fighter and their nutritionist or whoever it is. Theyโ€™ve got to be responsible for what theyโ€™re putting in their body. It is actually really good that this is happening because the truth is if Luis Ortiz was cheating he wouldnโ€™t have been found out before in this fight and thatโ€™s dangerous.

โ€œHow many fighters are cheating? How many fighters have been cheating in the past? And by cheating what youโ€™re doing is risking youโ€™re risking other peopleโ€™s lives. Itโ€™s not like youโ€™re in a race over 100 metres, youโ€™re punching someone with the intention to hurt them and knock them out. So weโ€™ve got to get them out of the sport.โ€

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