THE heavyweight division is in rude health. Anthony Joshua brought around 80,000 fans into Wembley stadium for a widely viewed pay-per-view, even though his challenger Alexander Povetkin was little known to the general public. His main rivals, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury will contest the WBC belt, the only world title that Joshua doesnโt hold, on December 1 in America.
In short this is a good time for heavyweight boxing. But donโt expect to see a unification to confirm an undisputed champion in the division any time soon. Frank Warren, who promotes Fury, doesnโt anticipate the Wilder-Fury winner facing Joshua immediately after their fight, condemning โEddie Hearn [Joshuaโs promoter] bulls*** he put out there to stop the fight from happening. First he keeps banging on about a rematch clause and [that] heโs got to know now. Thatโs what theyโre saying. As they want to announce their fight, itโs a deadline. Last week he was talking about [Dillian] Whyte fighting on December 22. So how is that going to happen then? Theyโre not going to wait to see whether Whyte won that fight? Itโs all bulls***. Heโs going to be fighting Whyte on [April] 13. Like I told you he was going to be fighting Povetkin. I said forget all the Wilder stuff, thatโs never going to happen. Youโve got to read Barry Hearnโs statement a few weeks. Barry Hearnโs very, very succinct. Barry Hearn said we donโt care whether we fight Wilder in two years or even in 10 yearsโ time.โ
Warren continued, โHeโs telling you, no one seems to pick up on it, heโs an accountant, his mentality is he doesnโt want to risk what he feels is his cash cow. Thatโs it.โ
Fury has taken this shot at Wilder sooner than Warren originally advised. โWe go for the fight,โ Warren said. โI wanted my man to have another couple of fights. Mentally heโs there, he wants it. He said let’s do it. His confidence has given me the confidence to make the fight. So weโve made it happen. But that tells you what heโs about. Whatever you want to say about Tyson Fury, heโs got balls. Heโs the guy that went out to Germany, the other guyโs backyard. Didnโt go to purse bids, letโs go there, letโs do itโฆ He went out there and he done it in style and won it. That tells you he wants to fight. All this bulls*** about โheโs the most boring fighter ever, heโs the worst fighter youโve ever seen.โ Heโs the worst fighter heโs ever seen, [why] was he [Eddie Hearn] trying to feed up two of his fighters for him to beat, which was Whyte and [Tony] Bellew and then fight Joshua, and offer him millions to do it. So suddenly heโs a bad fighter.โ
While Warren claims there is a flaw in Anthony Joshua, he insists he admires him. โI knew about him when he was a kid. He came to my shows before anybody outside of amateur boxing knew about him. Before Matchroom knew about him. I really liked him. When he won silver at the World amateur championships he showed a lot of balls. He absolutely gritted his teeth, went out there and tried to win the gold. I thought he won that and I thought it was a bad decision. He was lucky in the Olympics, there were a couple of decisions there which I felt went his way,โ Warren said.
โI know a lot of people have a lot of respect for Rob McCracken. I donโt think heโs with a trainer whoโs great at teaching boxers defence. Carl Froch didnโt have a great defence. Look at his nose. He didnโt have a great defence. He had a great chin. Anthony Joshuaโs been clipped in every fight heโs ever had,โ Warren claimed. โ[Carlos] Takam clipped him, every one of them and he got clipped again [against Povetkin] the first round and in the second before he knocked him out. Heโs got a big heart. Heโs got a big punch.โ
Warren added, โIf that had been Wilder catching him on the chin, or even Tyson catching him on the chin, do you think theyโd have let him off the hook? The answer to that is no. Heโs got a big punch. He was behind in that fight in my opinion, I still like him as a fighter. But I donโt look at what fighters are good at doing, I look at what are doing badly or what their flaws are. And his flaw is you can catch him with a right hand. Heโs not hard to hit.โ