FOLLOWING the Riyadh heavyweight hype and hoopla last weekend, there’s been time to reflect and put matters into some perspective.
Eddie Hearn declared Anthony Joshua the world’s best at his weight after he forced ordinary Otto Wallin to retire with a broken nose at the end of five one-sided rounds.
Promoter Hearn wasn’t alone in having a rush of blood to the head with his over-the-top reaction.
Plenty of others claimed Britain’s former two-time world champion, after a couple of underwhelming displays this year, was now back to his best.
Joshua’s best by far was when he put paid to Wladimir Klitschko in 11 rounds six years ago — but it’s highly unlikely he will ever reach that peak again.
Against Wallin, AJ did what he was expected to do — overpower a mundane rival quickly and efficiently.
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What was pleasing was to see Joshua still had a supply of aggression burning in his belly. He also managed to shake off the sluggishness that seemed to be afflicting him.
There was a worry AJ could have slipped on the Wallin banana skin — at least he’s proved he will still be in the mix when it comes to world title match-ups next year.
But before Hearn’s cheerleading can be taken seriously by fans, Joshua will have to beat Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk.
Daniel Dubois also got rave reviews for beating 23-stone disgraced druggie Jarrell Miller — who was carrying more blubber than a humpback whale.
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Yet having taken a knee and been counted out after being hit with a jab fighting Usyk four months ago, it will take more than that for Dubois to redeem himself in my eyes.
The Fury-Usyk phoney war is at last coming to an end — the outbreak of hostilities is only seven weeks away.
We’ve cried out for a unified world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis ruled 24 years ago.
But boxing cannot help shooting itself in the foot.
Either Fury or Usyk will only hold that title for about five minutes.
The IBF, in their wisdom, decided as Fury and Usyk have a return clause, they will declare their version of the title vacant in the interests of mandatory challenger, Croatian Filip Hrgovic.
As Lennox used to say, it’s another example of misguided boxing politricks — the governing bodies never seem to understand what is in the sport’s best interests.
But who will receive boxing’s Oscar as The Ring magazine’s 2023 Fighter of the Year?
In its 95-year history, Fury is the only Brit to be honoured — in 2015 and again five years later.
There are four outstanding unbeaten candidates — Japan’s Naoya Inoue and Americans Terence Crawford, Devin Haney and Gervonta Davis.
Favourite must be Inoue, known as The Monster for devouring his opponents.
Appropriately on Boxing Day, Inoue — in front of 15,000 of his adoring Tokyo fans — KO’d Philipino Marlon Tapales.
That unified the super-bantamweight division as he had already won the four bantamweight belts.
Before, only Crawford ever unified two divisions.
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Inoue, 30, was having his 21st world title fight.
He is a world champ in four different weight classes and has KO’d 23 of his 26 opponents.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
