Kubrat Pulev Turns Down Offer To Fight Anthony Joshua On October 28th

Mollify or stultify maybe. Unify..

 

Every HW handler worries about Ortiz and with good reason. I seriously doubt that the belt holders themselves do. I'm quite sure Joshua thinks he can handle Ortiz as does Wilder and who knows? Maybe they can. Each day that passes, their odds get better because Ortiz is getting older. I'm sure the handlers factor that into their calculations. It's ****ed up, but there it is. Maybe Joshua will be able to convince his camp.

 

Wlad proved he has anything but a glass jaw in that fight.

 

Good. No one wants to see this fight.

Let Joshua fight Ortiz or get stripped.

 

Biggest loser here is Pulev. Hopefully either Pulev gets forced in the ring or Joshua drops the belt for an equally quality or better fight. I do not think we will get an Ortiz or Wilder fight like some hope and Joshua will probably just chill and fight him late December/early January. As terrible as it sounds and despite people's claims of a return to HW glory, if it isn't one of Wilder/Parker/Ortiz/Povetkin/maybe missing somebody, Pulev is at some point right up there the next best fight for Joshua just on merit and ranking.

 

Good, so now Joshua has time to knock Wilder out cold! Watch Wilder run from his words!

 

Pulev passing up a mandatory, reminds me of the time Povetkin did the same.

Hopefully we see Joshua Vs Ortiz now.

 

It would be great if they throw in Ortiz vs. AJ, it would make all the sense in the world.

 

Probably something to do with cycling off some peds.

 

I honestly can't think how a delay benefits Pulev. Joshua is only getting better with each fight, longer he delays this the greater the task before him.

As others have mentioned he was very vocal before about enforcing his mandatory and now he wants a delay? He's had plenty of time to prepare for this fight. He's known he had this coming for some time, he's been the mandatory since October 2016, he'll have had 1 year and 1 month to prepare for Joshua but needs more time, what a joke.

I expect they'll go to plan C and fight Ortiz. Naysayers will say there's no chance he fights Ortiz, these same people said he wouldn't fight Wlad and then said they knew he would never fight Wlad when the fight was initially cancelled. Well Hearn and Joshua proved them wrong by making the Wlad fight. So I'm quite confident they'll offer the fight to Ortiz if Pulev remains in hiding. Only way it doesn't happen is if Ortiz like Pulev blows this opportunity which he's capable of doing, his career has been tumultuous of late with promotional changes with every other fight.

 

Pulev probably needs a 4 month camp to get into condition for AJ tbh

 

My guess is this is an attempt to get Joshua stripped. I have no doubt that he wants to fight Joshua even if the fight is nothing more than a cash out but he also wants to retire having won a world title. Getting Joshua stripped of the IBF is an insurance policy to help him achieve that because realistically he has a far better chance of beating Takam than he does Joshua. If he fights Joshua now he retires a rich man, if he fights Takam and then Joshua he'll retire a rich former champion of the world (though I wouldn't rule out Takam). Pulev's trying to have his cake and eat it.

 

Those 4 months will turn Pulev in a total beast, he will toy with AJ for a few rounds and then KTFO him.