Will Anthony Joshua Fight Fury or Wilder in 2019?
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- Category: Fighting
- Created: Thursday, 14 March 2019 14:02
There’s only one thing that true fight fans want: the best boxers battling it out for the gold in the prime of their lives.
Nobody wants to see two pound-for-pound greats going at it too late; as was the case when Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally locked horns a little too far down the line for most fans’ liking.
At the age of 29, Anthony Joshua is arguably in his prime as a boxer, and having rarely been tested during his 22-fight career there is still plenty of gas in the tank too.
The concern, however, for AJ’s fans is that he isn’t getting the big fight nights his talent deserves, instead tackling second-rate heavyweights – albeit while still filling arenas – and taking his customary knockout victory.
That’s certainly the case for June’s date with Jarrell Miller in New York; ‘Big Baby’ has rather talked his way into the fight, given that the best name on his CV is, erm, Tomasz Adamek.
Barring an absolute miracle, this is a no-contest. The bookmakers make Joshua a 1/7 favourite in the latest boxing odds and that’s testament to his ability and Miller’s lack of big fight pedigree.
And so there’s a hunger amongst British boxing fans to see their man enter the ring against the heavyweight division’s two other main draws: Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, is a shrewd operator, but if he waits too long to match his fighter with a big star then he may find his latest cash cow loses some of his money-making ability. It won’t be long before the next British hopeful comes along, after all.
So can a bout be made against the ‘Gypsy King’ or the ‘Bronze Bomber’ in 2019? Unfortunately, once again it appears politics is going to get in the way of the sweet science.
TV Personality
When Fury and Wilder got it on in the Staples Center back in December, they put on a fight for the ages.
The technician against the brawler, their styles meshed nicely for 12 rounds in which Fury had to twice lift himself from the canvas while giving Wilder a boxing lesson.
The judges couldn’t separate them, and an eagerly-anticipated rematch looked a given for 2019.
And then money intervened.
Fury has signed a steady £80m deal with ESPN, the biggest in British boxing history, to cover the next two-and-a-half years, and that will give the 30-year-old a huge leg-up in America.
Tyson Fury - exclusive to BT Sport and ESPN
— bet365 (@bet365) February 18, 2019
Anthony Joshua - exclusive to Sky Sports and DAZN
Deontay Wilder - exclusive to Showtime
Fight fans right now: 😫 pic.twitter.com/G7T36Fgtxy
Sadly, Joshua has also signed an exclusive deal Stateside with DAZN, and it is already known that those two broadcasters are unlikely to work together on a joint promotion.
To add another spanner into the works, Wilder is signed to Showtime, and getting these competing entities together to thrash out terms is near enough an impossibility. In January, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren confirmed he had received a bid from Hearn to bring his client and Joshua together in April.
And then a month later, Joshua himself confirmed that his people had been in advanced talks with Wilder for a fight some time this year, but nothing concrete has materialised.
Once again, the real losers in this political game, who now fear they may never see AJ take on one or both of the other premium operators in the heavyweight division.
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