The State of the Heavyweight Division After Joshua vs Klitschko
Anthony Joshua now controls the heavyweight division. His thrilling comeback knockout of Wladimir Klitschko confirms that for all to see and with both the IBF and WBA belts in his possession, AJ is in a very enviable place. Everybody else wants what he’s got and we can speculate our ideal fights from the top down but everything really depends now on the domino effect from what Joshua chooses to do next.
Joseph Parker’s situation, for example. He’s gonna beat up Razvan Cojanu and he probably would have beaten Hughie Fury too, though that one woulda had way more variables. Deontay Wilder called him out, Dominic Breazeale was keen to fight. Parker himself, like Wilder, has spoken about unifying belts. There’s been a frustration in New Zealand about Parker having to take on a much weaker opponent on short notice but it actually doesn’t make much difference to his future. JP is equally as likely to fight Deontay Wilder after Cojanu as he would’ve been after Fury.
However if you’re Deontay Wilder then are you gonna take on Parker next or Anthony Joshua? AJ has emerged as one of the biggest names in British sport and a fight with him is making you big bucks. Parker doesn’t really have a say in the matter. But the man who stands in the middle of all of this is Wladimir Klitschko who had a genuine chance to beat Joshua and failed to, though in the process proved that at 41 years old and after 17 month out of the ring he’s far from washed up. There’s a rematch clause in the Joshua-Klitschko contract and in this convoluted make-your-own-adventure of a division, this is the first choice to be made. Let’s say Joshua and Klitschko decide to go dancing again. If that happens then Deontay Wilder is looking at a July date with no opponent and Joseph Parker, with his WBA belt, becomes prime target number one. Winner emerges with two belts and can probably then book an all-timer of a unification bout with the winner of AJ-Wlad 2.
But of course this is boxing and nothing’s that simple. Joseph Parker and Duco Events are adamant that they want nothing to do with Hughie Fury after his withdrawal cost them plenty of money and stress but Fury produced a medical certificate for that back injury. He’s technically got a legit reason for backing out (so to speak…), it’s just that the whole journey before that was littered with crazy as well. So Fury remains the WBO’s mandatory challenger and that fight might be called for again – the Fury’s sure reckon it will be. Word is that if they’re forced to take on Fury once more then Duco wanna make it even harder for him by taking the bout to Samoa, haha.
And they’re not the only ones whose plans for world domination might be held up by mandatory challenges. Hell, all four of the major belts are dealing with the same dramas. Deontay Wilder is supposed to take on Bermane Stiverne next… which is a complete joke. Wilder and Stiverne have already fought and Deontay beat him by unanimous decision. Not the best fight but still convincing enough. That was in early 2015 and Stiverne has only fought once since – a UD win over Derric Rossy in which he hit the canvas once. Yet somehow he’s been positioned as the mandatory again.
Reason for that being that Alexander Povetkin had been meant to fight for the title against Wilder but was replaced after testing positive for meldonium. Then Wilder broke his hand against Chris Arreola in the replacement fight and was ruled out for several months. Povetkin and Stiverne were ordered to fight for the interim title but Stiverne tested positive for something minor himself, though the fight was still sanctioned until Povetkin tested positive again and Stiverne ended up with the nomination almost accidentally.
There was an assumption he’d need to fight Luis Ortiz in an eliminator but instead Stiverne was called to take on Wilder. Complicating factor here is that Wilder, even more than most, abhors drugs cheats and claims he’ll never fight somebody he knows has erred that way before. Which also includes Luis Ortiz, by the way. Poor old Ortiz is such a dangerous fighter but between his merry-go-round promoters and his past mistakes he’s a real chance of never getting a real chance at glory.
Ortiz and Stiverne (unlike Povekin and also Andrzej Wawrzyk, who was supposed to be DW’s latest challenger ‘til he was snapped for PEDs as well) are clean fighters these days, Ortiz has passed several years of tests since he last buggered up and Stiverne’s was an accidental supplement thing anyway, which the authorities didn’t choose to punish. Hence Ortiz’s trainer thinks Wilder is dodging his dude using drugs testing as an excuse. But with a unification bout taking precedence over the mandatory, you can see why Wilder is so keen to look ahead rather than backwards in his career there.
Heck, even Anthony Joshua ain’t clear of the mandatory dramas. In fact he’s the one who’s gotta deal with this the most because he’s got Luis Ortiz positioned as the WBA mandatory and Kubrat Pulev as the IBF mandatory. Two different fellows, can’t fight them both at once, right? So there’s a very real chance that he’s forced to give up one or both of those belts if the organisations don’t play ball with his rematch with Klitschko (which they should, common sense and all) or the proposed English Classic against a returning Tyson Fury (which they have no reason to). As long as Fury is in the horrendous shape he’s in then that fight is a long way away on the horizon but you can’t say it wouldn’t draw some hype… and lots of money.
Which doesn’t leave a lot of room for a guy like Tony Bellew, who was wisely hanging off AJ’s coattails on the weekend because his profile in the UK makes him a handy intermediary fight for either Wilder or Parker to build their profile over there before taking on Joshua (probably more Parker than Wilder, because of the mandatory situations). Quite frankly Bellew is way undersized against both of those champs and shouldn’t pose a threat but there’d be cash on hand for that too.
Wilder could just have to bite the bullet and fight Bermane Stiverne again. Joshua might not be free again until the end of the year, whether Klitschko takes the rematch or not. Wilder and Parker can overcome their mandatories with unification bouts but for Anthony Joshua, the Klitschko fight was the unification and those delayed mandatories are coming up fast. Also if he wants to add a third belt (or replace a stripped one) then Joseph Parker is the lesser threat compared to Wilder at this point in time. And we also can’t overlook the chance of Klitschko fighting again but not against Joshua.
Plus Wilder’s defence against Stiverne, the only man to take him the distance in his career, was called back in February and the purse bid was meant to come up a month ago but was delayed. It’s all complicated and one fight confirmation would change the whole picture but after a few years of complete madness we now have a distinct elite tier in the heavyweight division and they all wanna fight each other… eventually.
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