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.
โI think thatโs going to be the big fight. But he [Wilder] needs to fight somebody. Joshua has boxed [Wladimir] Klitschko, now heโs boxing Pulev. Wilderโs 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 weโll 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. โJoshua wants all the belts. So youโve got the Parker fight as well, but obviously Parker didnโt look the best last time out. Itโs a tougher fight to sell now. But itโs still a unification fight and the WBC fight of course,โ Hearn said.
He added, โThe fight I look for Parker is either Joshua in February/March or Tony Bellew, if he beats David Haye, thatโs the two fights weโve got. Or Dillian Whyte. But he doesnโt want to fight Dillian Whyte, another one who doesnโt want to fight Dillian.โ
Hearn feels there is no place in boxing Ortiz, who has failed his second drug test in recent years. โIf you really were [taking medication], how could you not put it down on your form. Youโve been done before, you know youโre being VADA tested, itโs also a masking agent. It doesnโt look great,โ said promoter, who has himself worked with Ortiz.
โThey were trying to get Joshua stripped of the WBA for not fighting him,โ he continued. โIf youโre taking medication you put it down. I canโt believe anything else. Itโs hard when youโve got an innocent fighter that may have made an innocent mistake but then heโs being labelled a cheat and who knows. The bottom line is the responsibility lies with the fighter and their nutritionist or whoever it is. Theyโve got to be responsible for what theyโre putting in their body. It is actually really good that this is happening because the truth is if Luis Ortiz was cheating he wouldnโt have been found out before in this fight and thatโs dangerous.
โHow many fighters are cheating? How many fighters have been cheating in the past? And by cheating what youโre doing is risking youโre risking other peopleโs lives. Itโs not like youโre in a race over 100 metres, youโre punching someone with the intention to hurt them and knock them out. So weโve got to get them out of the sport.โ