From the outside looking in, it seemed as though Otto Wallin was going to give Anthony Joshua hell in the ring. The two officially met up in the main event slot last weekend in the Kingdom Arena, in Saudi Arabia.
Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s long time promoter, didn’t believe his man would get beat, but his palms were a bit sweaty once the opening bell rang. The jittery nerves of Hearn, however, were calmed as Joshua dominated the highly-ranked contender, eventually stopping him in the fifth round.
Although his performance was terrific, Joseph Parker may have stolen the show. In the co-main event, it was essentially a foregone conclusion that Deontay Wilder would violently stop him, possibly early. Parker though, didn’t follow the script.
The former heavyweight champ was the busier fighter, the stronger fighter, and the flat-out better fighter on the night. Prior to the show getting going, Hearn revealed that both Wilder and Joshua signed a two-fight deal to finally get it on.
With Wilder seemingly off the table now, Parker (34-3, 23 KOs) becomes an interesting name. Of course, Joshua got the better of Parker back in 2018. The 31-year-old is back to being a hot commodity though. Still, that doesn’t mean he’ll land another shot at Joshua as soon as he would probably like.
“Yea look, you never rule out anything,” said Hearn to Boxing Social. “But I don’t think it’s on the immediate radar.”
According to Hearn, it’ll take more than just a handful of recent good performances for Parker to get back in the mix. For now, team Joshua is aiming for a showdown with Filip Hrgovic for a possibly vacant title.
With that said, Parker isn’t totally out of the loop. If he wants to get his hands on Joshua once again, he’ll just have to put in a bit more work.
“If Joe keeps winning, for sure.”
