AJ CAN CROWN A KNOCKOUT YEAR
Heavyweight champ is favourite to floor rivals in SPOTY
ANTHONY JOSHUA had a momentous year in 2017 – and is being backed to top it in 2018.
Joshua is hot favourite to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award tomorrow because of his record-breaking last 12 months. He unified the WBA Super and IBF heavyweight titles in an epic clash with the former world No.1 Wladimir Klitschko in front of a postwar record 90,000 crowd at Wembley in April. Joshua, 28, followed that by stopping Carlos Takam in front of 75,000 in Cardiff in October.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is thrilled by what his boxer achieved in 2017.
“This year has been an incredible one for Anthony,” he said. “He had that historic night in April at Wembley when he unified the division against Wladimir Klitschko.
“He attracted a record 90,000 crowd to Wembley to see that epic win and he is undoubtedly the biggest box-office star in boxing.
“Then there was his mandatory defence against Takam at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff which set a new indoor world record for a fight. “No less than 165,000 people attended his two fights this year. It’s great to see him nominated for the Sports Personality of the Year and it would be great for boxing if he could become boxing’s latest winner, following such greats as Lennox Lewis.”
Hearn has even bigger plans for Joshua in 2018 and would like three fights, including clashes with the other two main title holders – WBC champ Deontay Wilder and the WBO’s Joseph Parker.
He is in negotiations with Parker’s camp and hopes to make that Joshua’s next fight in the spring before a possible WBA title defence and then a huge showdown with Wilder.
“We hope 2018 will be even more exciting,” said Hearn. “Anthony wants all the belts and the aim is to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, something no fighter has done since Lennox.
“We’d like Anthony to have three fights next year and they would be Parker, Wilder and the WBA mandatory, although not necessarily in that order.”
Joshua has built on his 2012 Olympic gold medal success to become one of Britain’s biggest sports stars.
His face is on billboards nationwide and Hearn feels he ranks alongside other SPOTY nominee Lewis Hamilton and past winner Andy Murray.
“No fighter sells tickets like he does,” he said. “But the best SPOTY ODDS 1/7 Joshua; 6/1 Hamilton; 20/1 Farah; 33/1 Kane; 40/1 Froome; 40/1 Rea; 100/1 Peaty; 100/1 Peacock; 125/1 Shrubsole; 250/1 Walkden; 250/1 Christie; 250/1 Konta.