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Reason Why Anthony Joshua vs. Otto Wallin: Joshua responds to Wallin’s mind games ahead of December 23

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Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua is in the final stages of training camp for his clash with Otto Wallin on December 23 in Saudi Arabia live on DAZN PPV.

This heavyweight contest will be Joshua’s third fight of 2023 and will be a crucial step on the road to potentially becoming a three-time world heavyweight champion.

There is no secret that the past 12 months for Joshua have been a rebuilding process following back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk. After losing to the Ukrainian for a second time last year, Joshua went on a post-fight rant which was out of character for the Olympic gold medallist who also broke down in tears at the subsequent press conference.

This display of emotion led to some questioning whether Joshua had the mentality to carry on in boxing and challenge the biggest names, but so far, the British star’s return to the ring in 2023 has been a successful one. Wins over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius have built up a lot of momentum ahead of the clash with Wallin, but the Swede will pose a tough test.

Anthony Joshua

Many fans will know Wallin for his meeting with Tyson Fury back in 2019 when he inflicted a deep cut on the current WBC world heavyweight champion and caused plenty of problems. While Fury was awarded the win on the judges’ scorecards, Wallin came out of the contest as a legitimate heavyweight contender.

His southpaw stance will give Joshua plenty to think about in Riyadh, and the Swede has attempted to get the extra edge on Joshua after claiming that his British rival is mentally weak.

When asked by DAZN to respond to these claims, Joshua did not seem fazed and will instead leave his talking to be done inside the ring.

“I’ve never seen someone win a fight via mental games,” Joshua said.

“The way you win a fight is by punching someone more times or punching someone harder than the other person.

“What can I say, it’s his point of view, but at the end of the day the one who throws more punches and lands the harder punches will win, not the one who has an opinion on someone’s mentality.”

Compared to his two previous fights earlier this year, there does seem to be a change in Joshua’s demeanour in the build up to the meeting with Wallin.

During the announcement press conference for the contest last month, Joshua said he would conduct a ‘demolition job’ on Wallin before the pair engaged in a heated face off. This was seen by some as a positive sign for Joshua who is sometimes critcised for his laid back approach before fights, but in the eyes of the former world champion, there is only one reason as to why he has decided to adopt this pre-fight approach.

“I just want to be victorious if I’m honest with you,” Joshua continued.

“That’s it, I’m focused, I’m locked in. This year has been full dedication, all gas, no brakes.

“I want to end it with a bang.”

If Joshua is able to get the win over Wallin on December 23, it’s likely that this will set up a huge clash with Deontay Wilder at some point in 2024. However, Wilder must come through unscathed against Joseph Parker which features on the same bill as Joshua vs. Wallin.

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BOXING

Anthony Joshua ‘left grieving’ after realising career dream will never happen during candid interview

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Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua has revealed his grief in a candid and open interview with Laura Woods ahead of his fight on December 23.

Joshua returns to action next weekend when he faces Otto Wallin in the main-event of the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He goes into the bout having won back-to-back fights following his consecutive defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, where he lost his unified titles then the chance to regain them.

After his defeat in the rematch, the 34-year-old broke down in the ring as he delivered an emotional post-fight interview.

Speaking after his second loss to Usyk, he said: “It’s really, really hard for me to say I’m proud of myself. I don’t feel anything, I’m just… I’m upset. Deep, down in my heart.”

Asked by Woods whether he went through a stage of grieving after the defeat, the former world heavyweight champion replied: “Yeah you saw it after that [Usyk fight].”

Anthony-Joshua 2

he replied” “Yeah, was that grief?”

Joshua added: “Yeah. Because if I weren’t in the undisputed race anymore, I wanted to be champion so that was like a massive, like, I don’t know how to explain it but something comes over you but it’s just passion.

“Passion, a lot of emotion. Yeah, a lot of emotion. So, now I’ve got over that. It’s not part of my plan anymore. So, what’s next I could aim to become champion.”

He continued: “Because it’s still like you could still fight this person. You could talk about that person. And this person just emerged out of nowhere. So, there’s still competition.”

Joshua, who has no world title to his name, could still become undisputed champion if he can secure a fight against the winner of Tyson Fury vs. Usyk.

Of course, he needs to get past Wallin next weekend then Wilder in 2024.

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BOXING

Anthony Joshua Rules Himself Out Of Challenging To Become Undisputed World Heavyweight Championv

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Anthony Joshua

Former boxing Heavyweight Champion, Anthony Joshua has opened up on his realisation that he may not become undisputed heavyweight champion, claiming the feat is ‘not in my time frame’.

The 34-year-old is set to take on Otto Wallin on December 23 in a blockbuster night of boxing that will also see Deontay Wilder face Joseph Parker in another big heavyweight match.

Joshua comes into the bout off the back of consecutive wins against Jermaine Franklin Jr and Robert Helenius and also admitted that he would like to take on Wilder or even Francis Ngannou in 2024.

Despite that, Joshua says his chances of becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion after he lost his WBO, WBA, IBO and IBF belts to Oleksandr Usyk in 2020, is very slim as he may have to wait six years before he can pick up those belts again.

In an interview with TNT Sports, the fighter was asked by Laura Woods whether he feels he could still be a challenger for the undisputed title, but he said: ‘I used to, but it won’t happen anymore.’

When pressed on why, he explained: ‘I think it is because of the reality because what will happen is that Usyk and Fury are in a position to compete for the undisputed. And once they compete for the undisputed, the belts will get split up again.

Anthony Joshua

‘And I feel will probably take me about maybe five to six years to go through and get all the belts and beat all the independent champions, and that will probably take me until I’m 40 or 41 before I do that again. So I’m just like, it’s probably not in my in time frame.’

After suffering back-to-back defeats by Usyk in August, Joshua delivered an emotional post-fight press conference, where he broke down in tears while expressing his disappointment in his performance.

Joshua said after the fight: ‘It’s really, really hard for me to say I’m proud of myself. I don’t feel anything, I’m just… I’m upset. Deep, down in my heart.’

And when asked whether he went through a period of grieving after the defeat, Joshua said: ‘Yeah you saw it after that [Usyk fight].’

‘Yeah, was that grief?’ Woods replied.

‘Yeah. Because if I weren’t in the undisputed race anymore, I wanted to be champion so that was like a massive, like, I don’t know how to explain it but something comes over you but it’s just passion.

‘Passion, a lot of emotion. Yeah, a lot of emotion. So, now I’ve got over that. It’s not part of my plan anymore. So what’s next I could aim to become champion.’

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BOXING

Anthony Joshua: Fury Looked Like a Fat Slob That Can’t Fight, I Think Ngannou Won

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anthony joshua

Former two-time world champion Anthony Joshua has fired off some verbal jabs at his domestic rival, Tyson Fury, over his most recent performance against MMA veteran Francis Ngannou.

Fury has often referred to Joshua as being nothing more than a “bodybuilder” with limited skills.

However, Joshua believes that a bodybuilder, Ngannou, taught Fury a lesson.

“Bodybuilders up, dossers down. He just looked like a flat slob that just can’t fight. He says that bodybuilders can’t fight, but he got smacked up by one. I’ve always wanted to get in the ring with him. He does a lot of talking, calls me a bodybuilder and stuff, but I want to marvel at the African power – he’s a bodybuilder, steps in and smacks him up for me,” Joshua told TNT Sports Boxing.

Back in October, Fury faced Ngannou in a cr

Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou

ossover boxing match in Saudi Arabia. Fury was dropped in the third round, suffered a cut on his forehead from an uppercut, a badly bruised eye and he struggled with the style of Ngannou. After ten rounds, Fury came away with a razor-close ten round split decision win in a fight that most had expected to be a mismatch.

Joshua felt Ngannou did enough to pull off an upset.

“I think Ngannou won,” Joshua said. “But the judges are there for a reason, they score it how they score it and they’re professionals at what they do and I’m just an observer. Fury won, but from a fan’s point of view, I think Ngannou won.”

On December 23, Joshua will face Otto Wallin in Saudi Arabia. Wallin’s sole defeat came at the hands of Fury. A win over Walling will place Joshua in position for a potential 2024 clash with Deontay Wilder, who appears in the co-feature in a crossroads clash against Joseph Parker.

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Eddie Hearn says he reached out to Francis Ngannou’s team about Anthony Joshua fight: ‘Never heard back’

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Anthony and Francis

Anthony Joshua’s longtime promoter claims to have had plenty of interest in booking Joshua against Francis Ngannou after the former UFC heavyweight champion nearly defeated Tyson Fury in his professional boxing debut.

Unfortunately, according to Matchroom Sport headman Eddie Hearn, that interest went unrequited.

“I reached out to Francis Ngannou’s team and I said, ‘Just to let you know, we’re up for discussing the Francis Ngannou [vs.] AJ fight. I never heard back from them,” Hearn said Monday on The MMA Hour. “So I think probably, knowing the business, I would say that probably Fury-Ngannou is almost probably agreed to post Fury-[Oleksandr] Usyk already.

“[Ngannou will] feel like, after that first fight, he can beat Fury, but there’s no point [in boxing non-stars] — he can really lose to anybody in the top 50 at heavyweight, so you’ve got to cash in at this point, and there’s really only three fights that cash into the levels that he will want [Fury, Joshua, or Deontay Wilder]. So I’d guess, and you might know better, Francis Ngannou will fight in the PFL or wherever in spring, summer of 2024, and then he’ll fight Tyson Fury at the end of [2024]. I would think that would be the mindset of the team.”

Anthony Joshua

“I think everyone knows it’s a two-fight deal with Fury-Usyk,” Hearn added, “and I would think that there’s probably one on the back end as well to rematch Ngannou.”

Ngannou, 37, nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets in combat sports history this past October when he fought to a controversial split decision against Fury. Despite being a sizable betting underdog, Ngannou pushed Fury to his limits and even knocked down boxing’s lineal heavyweight champion in a performance that blew away the expectations of many and left boxing lifers such as Hearn and Carl Frampton singing his praises. Immediately following the bout, Hearn publicly lobbied for Joshua vs. Ngannou to be next, stating that he believed the matchup could be “one of the biggest fights in the history of the sport,” especially if it was held in in Africa, where both fighters have roots.

However, the fight never came together. Joshua instead signed to face Otto Wallin on the Day of Reckoning card in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 23., an event that features another of Ngannou’s potential opponents — Deontay Wilder — in a co-headlining bout against Joseph Parker. If Joshua and Wilder both emerge victorious, Hearn reiterated his hope on Monday that the long-awaited clash between Joshua and Wilder could be the next step.

Ngannou’s next move remains uncertain, however Fury is set to face WBA, WBO, and IBF heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk in a much-anticipated title unification bout on Feb. 17.

anthony joshua

While much of shine on Fury has been washed away since his lackluster showing against Ngannou, Hearn still favors boxing’s lineal king to handles his business against Usyk.

“I really believed he was quite a strong favorite pre-Ngannou,” Hearn said of Fury. “We don’t really know physically where he’s at. I mean, he’s lucky that Usyk’s not a puncher, he’s lucky Usyk’s a much smaller man. Because I think against a bigger guy, against a puncher, against a guy that can wrestle him on the inside, I think his confidence really wouldn’t be there in a fight like that. So I do think Fury will win the fight, but you certainly can’t rule out Usyk, and we just don’t know where he’s at physically or mentally after a fight like that [Ngannou performance]. He didn’t look himself in that fight, but perhaps he was just ill prepared.”

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Francis Ngannou open to Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua fights in boxing or mixed rules: ‘I’m the one that can go everywhere’

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Francis Nnganou

Francis Ngannou still wants the biggest challenges available to him, but he understands when it comes to potential opponents like Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua that he will either have to face them in boxing or concede to mixed rules to make it a fair fight.

While he prefers a rematch with heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury more than anything else, Ngannou has other options available to him after nearly pulling off the upset of the century in his professional boxing debut. Despite losing a split decision to Fury in October, Ngannou suddenly became an attractive opponent for a lot of top-ranked boxers including Joshua, who promised to knock out the former UFC champ if they ever meet.

“Even Tyson Fury said the same thing and Tyson Fury is better than Anthony Joshua,” Ngannou said in response while speaking on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast. “What do I care about what people say?

“I’ve been in this game for so long. I’ve seen so much. I’ve heard so much what people intend to do. There’s a difference between wanting to do and be able to do.”

Anthony and Francis

If Joshua wants to fight, Ngannou has no problem accepting that challenge, although he expects that it’d have to be in a boxing match because the 2012 Olympic gold medalist wouldn’t have a hope if they actually competed against one another in MMA.

Ngannou says that’s ultimately what separates him from the best boxers in the world — he can set foot in their ring and give them everything they can handle, but there’s no chance anyone from boxing could actually have a realistic chance against him in MMA.

“Anything that he wants. Ring or octagon,” Ngannou said of Joshua. “The good thing is I’m the one that can go everywhere comfortably. My comfort zone will be the octagon, but I’m going to the ring and putting them in a bad spot in the ring.

“Because I have my territory [in MMA] where they cannot mess with me. If they come, they will need something like some favor, like, ‘I’ll give you this, we’ll take kicks out.’ I have to give him something. But when we step in the ring, they don’t give me anything and I still get them in trouble.”

The same goes for Wilder, although Ngannou has more faith in him than Joshua when it comes to the potential to give somebody trouble in MMA.

Francis And Tyson

Wilder, who faces Joseph Parker on the same card as Joshua in December, has shown interest in potentially crossing over to MMA previously. PFL co-founder Donn Davis even teased Wilder vs. Ngannou as a mixed-rules fight that could possibly happen in 2024.

“Let’s say he’s not fighting me, he’s fighting somebody else,” Ngannou said of Wilder in MMA. “I look at the profile of that fighter, I put my money on Deontay. Basically, even just as a boxer, basically now that he’s really intent on doing MMA and [he’s] training, I’d put money on him.

“Because he just needs to cut somebody to land a punch. It could also be a mixed rules [fight]. We were thinking of mixed rules. Because honestly it’s going to be too hard for him if it’s not mixed rules.”

Ngannou believes Wilder is a realistic opponent in boxing or MMA, but he’s still awaiting word on who will end up as his next opponent.

“Even before this Tyson fight, we were talking with [Deontay Wilder],” Ngannou said. “He’s also willing to fight me in MMA. For real.”

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Froch: Deontay Wilder Knocks Anthony Joshua Spark Out in One Round

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Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshau

Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch is backing Deontay Wilder to blast out Anthony Joshua in a single round.

The two former world champions will appear on the same card on December 23rd in Saudi Arabia.

Joshua will appear in the main event against top contender Otto Wallin, while Wilder will face former champion Joseph Parker in the co-main.

DEONTAY WILDER And Anthony Joshua

Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch is backing Deontay Wilder to blast out Anthony Joshua in a single round.

The two former world champions will appear on the same card on December 23rd in Saudi Arabia.

Joshua will appear in the main event against top contender Otto Wallin, while Wilder will face former champion Joseph Parker in the co-main.

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BOXING

Miller warns Joshua ahead of Wallin’s bout

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Anthony Joshua

American heavyweight boxer Jarrell Miller has warned Anthony Joshua, a former heavyweight champion, not to underestimate Otto Wallin ahead of their December fight.

Joshua will fight Wallin on the same card as Deontay Wilder vs Joseph Parker on December 23 in Saudi Arabia.

Wallin has a record of 26-1 and he has recorded some impressive victories over fighters such as Murat Gassiev and Dominic Breazeale.

But, perhaps the most impressive fight of his career came in his only defeat when he pushed Tyson Fury all the way, leaving him with a nasty cut, before losing on points.

Wallin is also a southpaw, the same stance as Oleksandr Usyk, that Joshua struggled with in their two fights.

As such, Miller believes that Wallin could present a tough test for Joshua, telling SecondsOut: “I feel honestly that ‘AJ’ might have made a mistake with picking Otto Wallin.

“Even though Otto Wallin is not a one-punch knockout kind of guy, he is durable, he comes to fight, he is not a quitter and it is going to be a tough fight for ‘AJ’. I don’t think that it is going to be easy at all.”

Anthony-Joshua

Miller continued: “The mental mind state that ‘AJ’ has, is he going to hold up?

“When he fights in the UK, he has a little more oomph in his step a little bit, but when he fights outside of the UK, we don’t get the same fiery person, the playing ground is going to be a little bit more even out in Saudi.

“I wish all of the luck to Otto Wallin, I want to be the one to knock out ‘AJ’, but may the best man win, it is what it is.”

With that being said, what Miller says about AJ has to be taken with a pinch of salt, as the pair share a mutual dislike for each other.

They were supposed to fight back in 2019 before it was cancelled due to Miller testing positive for multiple banned substances, but this was not before both men had a chance to start a beef.

They almost came to blows in the build-up and even more recently at the press conference for the December 23 event that Miller will also be fighting on, they threw a few insults back and forth.

 

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Former Three Weight World Champion Says Anthony Joshua Is ‘Totally Shot’

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Anthony Joshua

A retired fighter who knows what it takes to become a three-time world champion doubts whether Anthony Joshua has the ability to repeat his feat.

Joshua is about to fight for the third time in a year for the first time since 2016. The contest is out in Saudi Arabia on December 23 against Swede Otto Wallin and, following wins over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius already, represents AJ’s toughest fight of the year.

Southpaw Wallin pushed Tyson Fury hard and inflicted a huge cut above his eye in their 2019 contest and has since had solid wins over the likes of Murat Gassier and Dominic Breazeale.

anthony joshua

Should two-time world champion Joshua come through that test, many are hoping that all roads will then lead to a fight with Deontay Wilder in 2024. A former champion himself, Wilder fights on the same bill against Joseph Parker.

One man who has already secured his legacy by becoming a three-weight world champion is James Toney, who held multiple world championships including the middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight titles.

Speaking to ESNEWS, Toney was asked who would win should Joshua and Wilder come to blows.

Toney is likely subscribing to the theory that the Brit’s mindset has change since his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, with many fans saying he is now a tentative fighter. The man himself disagrees, claiming he is just a better, smarter boxer.

Should he and Wilder win this month in Riyadh, the a match-up with the hard-hitting American will be the ultimate test of ‘AJ’s fortitude.

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Derek Chisora Reveals What He Told Joshua And Dubois About Usyk: “They Didn’t Listen”

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Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk

Derek Chisora believes he provided some inside information about Oleksandr Usyk that wasn’t heeded by Anthony Joshua or Daniel Dubois.

Chisora took on the mighty challenge of the technical Ukrainian southpaw back in 2020. He pushed him hard in a physical to and fro that tested Usyk’s mettle in the division when he was still finding his feet having not long since come up from being the undisputed cruiserweight king.

Chisora ultimately lost a unanimous points decision and Usyk went on to twice beat Joshua over the distance to take then retain three of the four world titles before defending them against another Brit in Dubois earlier this year – a stoppage win.

Speaking to Up Front with Simon Jordan, Chisora claims he told Joshua and Dubois how to fight Usyk but they didn’t listen.

He then outlined exactly what the advice was.

Finally, he heaped praise on the current WBA, WBO and IBF champion.

Whether Tyson Fury will heed Chisora’s advice when he faces Usyk for the undisputed title on February 17, 2024, we shall soon find out.

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