Joshua headlines Saturday’s card against the Swedish southpaw (Picture: Getty)
Ahead of the biggest boxing show of the year tonight, the former Olympian and heavyweight contender predicts how Anthony Joshua must deal with Otto Wallin and considers the option that could be more tempting for ‘AJ’ than Deontay Wilder next year…
Joshua ready to see out an impressive 2023
It has been a very good year for Anthony Joshua leading up to this weekend in Saudi Arabia. After those back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, there was always going to be a bit of a rebuilding phase.
He has kept active, fighting three times in one year for the first time since 2016 and having made big changes in his corner, that is what you need. But we are at a place now where time is ticking by.
The momentum is there and this fight against Otto Wallin on Saturday is the stepping stone to another very significant chapter. There have been a lot of critics the last few years and he has answered a lot of them this year. Doing that again this weekend puts him firmly back in the picture for those world titles.
In Otto Wallin, he has a very good opponent. I saw him box Kamil Sokolowski in Cardiff last year and to be honest, he didn’t look great. But since then, he has racked up a few more wins and got that very impressive victory over Murat Gassiev out in Turkey in September.
We all judge him off that Tyson Fury fight in 2019 but had had good victories since then. AJ won’t be overlooking him.
Wallin left Fury a bloody mess in 2019 (Picture: Getty)
AJ is the headline act, he needs to send a message
As the headline act, Joshua will need to steal the show. Deontay Wilder may have been out of the ring for a while but we know how devastating he is. People always remember that.
My last memory of Wilder is him blowing away Robert Helenius in one round and my last of Joshua is him doing the same against Helenius, but taking a bit longer. People remember those things and the way this card has been hyped, the comparison on how they see the show out is going to be there.
If I was AJ and his team, I would have all the screens taken out of the dressing room, ban any talk of that Wilder fight and what’s happening. He can’t be thinking about what Wilder is doing while he is trying to focus on the job at hand.
Wilder will be chasing a swift finish against Joseph Parker (Picture: Getty)
AJ cannot take his eye off the ball but I am backing him to get the win. Wallin is a crafty and clever fighter but I expect Joshua to catch him one of those big shots at some point and follow up and stop him. It’s set up for an AJ win.
We can’t forget though, Wallin is here to upset the applecart and so is Joseph Parker. And stranger things have happened in boxing. This is the heavyweight division and anything can happen. But I am backing AJ.
Hrgovic and the IBF title another compelling option
The groundwork is being laid for that big fight with Wilder in 2024 but there could be another option on the horizon if the IBF heavyweight title is made vacant. The Filip Hrgovic fight becomes very interesting too. Personally, I would want to become world champion again in that situation.
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Of course I can understand the Wilder fight is so tempting because of the excitement it will be bring and the money you earn from it.
It will be a personal decision, down to him and his team but from what I have seen and the way Joshua talks, he is so desperate to become world champion again before anything else. We’ll see how it unfolds but either one is a huge motivation for this fight against Wallin.
The Hrgovic fight would be a really good fight, he is someone I have seen a lot of over the years through the amateurs and professional ranks. But of course, the mouthwatering one is Joshua vs Wilder. It is the one the public wants.
MORE : Saudi Arabia is the new home of boxing – whether we like it or not
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In Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, ‘AJ’ is the headline act and must send a message to Deontay Wilder.