CHAMP JOSHUA SETS SIGHTS ON WILDER
Three stadium fights in 11 months in front of 250,000 fans...Joshua’s a boxing phenomenon
ANTHONY JOSHUA is ready to start negotiations with unbeaten American Deontay Wilder as early as this week to set up his next world heavyweight title fight. Wilder holds the division’s WBC title, the only belt Joshua needs to become the first heavyweight since Lennox Lewis to be the undisputed champion. After Joshua’s
unanimous points victory over New Zealander Joseph Parker in Cardiff on Saturday, which saw him add the WBO belt to his WBA, IBF and IBO titles, promoter Eddie Hearn said: ‘If they (Wilder’s management) stepped up and were actually serious about the fight and
serious about a fair deal we are more than ready to offer them, it could happen next. ‘The whole point of the Wilder fight is to win the final belt, so we don’t want to drop a belt and then fight Wilder because it wouldn’t quite be the history fight it could be. It’s AJ’s call on how many fights this year.’
Anthony Joshua sat, his four belts spread before him, the tiniest blemish on his left cheek the only physical sign he had just engaged in gladiatorial combat.
Another victory, another Coliseum show. this is his third stadium fight within a year: 90,000, 80,000, then 80,000 again. Las Vegas buzzes and crackles on its biggest boxing nights, but not like this.
the action in nevada is around the occasion, not in the arena itself. the big players blow through to be in the orbit of the event, to whirl around in its gravitational pull, to show off and smell the money.
that happens when Joshua fights, too. Cardiff is taken over by humanity wishing to be part of his show, even paralytic or vomiting. yet when Floyd Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao, just 500 tickets went on general sale, and the MGM Grand Garden Arena held 16,800 people.
to put that into perspective, 17,892 watched Portsmouth’s last home match, with oxford United in League one. the crowd for what was billed the biggest fight in history was roughly the average gate at Reading; if Reading are doing badly, like this season.
So Joshua’s fights are different. he doesn’t take boxing to the masses on terrestrial television, but he does the next best thing. he packs as many of this island’s population as he can into a stadium to watch him fight in the flesh. there has never been a boxer like him, not from here anyway.
Stadium fights are not new, but to take on so many of them in quick succession, and all for titles, is phenomenal. Joshua is changing his sport, paving a way for successors, presenting his blueprint for the next generation to copy.
Considering he came to prominence with the eyes of the nation on him, fighting for the gold medal as almost the last competitive act of the London olympics in 2012, there has never been a British fighter who exposes himself to the pressure of so many eyes.
‘It is massive, really,’ he mused. ‘If it goes wrong, it goes wrong in front of 90,000 people.’
the incredulous reaction of Joshua’s promoter Eddie hearn to talk of a rematch with Joseph Parker confirmed the toll of defeat. Joshua fills stadiums against the best opponents, as a winner. As a loser, who knows?
‘I can’t rest on this,’ he said. ‘I can’t sit back and say, “I’m the man”. Boxing, all sport these days, it doesn’t give athletes the chance to make a mistake. It has to be perfection, it has to be the highlight reel, it has to look great or it’s not good enough any more.
‘I don’t think we’ll see any more like LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, even Mike tyson. the world doesn’t give you the opportunity to make mistakes any more.’
So this is some high-wire act. Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley; belts on the line in Cardiff; a unification fight.
Seasoned observers say he would be mad to risk it all now by fighting Deontay Wilder in an attempt to claim the WBC belt and become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis.
Joshua can continue honing his skills against inferiors as they tiptoe around each other for a year or more, but gives the impression this would be purgatory. he talks
of being undisputed champion. He talks anxiously about missing out on Wilder. He talks about a fight in the summer.
It seems ludicrously hasty, barely time to indulge the brownies and ice cream that his team have been scoffing as he looks on enviously, before he is in harness again. That is the pressure of the stadium fighter. How does he follow this? Alexander Povetkin at the O2? By Joshua’s admission, anything less than a stadium and a marquee opponent in Britain now, would feel like the church hall.
Las Vegas? Well, that might be different. Fighting in Vegas has a romantic pull and the increased pay-per-view from performing on US time would compensate for what was sacrificed in Britain. Yet Joshua admits he still studies the top tiers in awe when he embarks on his ring walk.
Hearn, too. ‘There is something about walking out there,’ the promoter said. ‘It’s our third one and the first time I’ve taken the opportunity to just look around, and feel it. What is happening is mental — 250,000 people in 11 months, and he’s a baby in the sport. We should all be looking around, really. This will never happen again.’
Do not be so sure. Boxers, unique among athletes, talk about legacy. Usually, for the best of them, it is what is left when they retire, how they are remembered, where they stand in the pantheon.
Joshua’s legacy, however, is ongoing. It is in the now, this road map of the possible. He sees his role as the standard-bearer for British boxing. ‘Being the first stadium fighter creates the opportunity for the next one,’ Joshua said.
‘It creates the demand for elite fights. We know what boxing can be. Everybody wants to be the man, but no one wants to fight anyone. This now creates the atmosphere where fighters are starting to say, “I’m ready to step up. I’m ready to do this”.
‘That is why, for me, it has to be Wilder next. I can’t just go to the O2. Who do you want to see? Is Povetkin a stadium fight? The public has expectation now, and I feel under pressure to give them what they want. I’ve bucked the trend already. I don’t know what more I can do. We’re making history.
‘Wilder’s had 10 years as a pro and he hasn’t done what I’ve done. People might say, “Then just get it done”. But it’s not about fear — I’ve got to do what is right for me as well. I can’t just give him everything he wants to get him here. He needs British boxing. He’s bigger here than he is over there, and that’s because of us. Wilder came to me after the Klitschko fight and said, “This is phenomenal — we need to be do doing more stuff like this in the States”. But he didn’t talk about wanting to fight me then.
‘We’re not boasting about putting people in body bags. We are trying to project a positive image. When boxing is booming, grandparents can talk to their kids about it. They’re not saying, “Don’t watch this, it’s not healthy”.’
Boxing looked very healthy on Saturday night, even if Joshua’s points win did not earn universally positive reviews. He may have entered the ring to Seven Minutes
of Madness, but this was 12 rounds of comparative sanity, with Parker eating Joshua’s left jab and referee Giuseppe Quartarone doing his best to make this the first non-contact heavyweight boxing match in history. Neither was Joshua’s fault.
All Joshua can do is keep putting his career on the line in front of 80,000 demanding customers.
If he takes on Wilder next it would be a move few heavyweight champions in his position would make. And that would, again, be truly phenomenal.