Ed looking a little bit strained in the face

I have heard that they are waiting on Saudi Arabia for an update. Saudi Arabia do seem to be taking their time. I don't blame Joshua for moving onto a fight in December if they don't make any progress with Saudi Arabia in another few weeks. Joshua has always wanted to stay active and shouldn't put his career on hold for something that may not happen. I'm intrigued to see the opponent if Joshua fights in December. I imagine they will choose an opponent to make it PPV worthy.

 

Everything he said he wouldn’t become i.e bitter, he is becoming. Prob Jack it in soon.

 

That shows how little you know about anything. It is common knowledge that the Saudis do things in their own time and it can take years to get sign off on stuff.

 

Agree, if it can't get made as disappointing as that will be it will be good if he is out in December. In a division that is so inactive recently for him to be out 3 times in a year will be good going and I wish some of the others would follow his example. However, it does need to be a clear step up in quality that gives a real challenge. I think Franklin was an acceptable come back fight and Helenius has mitigation due to Whyte situation. If he goes in with a genuine challenge it will draw a real interest

 

I agree. I hope they don't use the excuse of it being a warm-up for Wilder as that fight hasn't been signed and there's no guarantee it'll ever happen. The problem is that for a PPV show there aren't many well-known names after Whyte failed his drugs test. I would go for Otto Wallin but he is fighting Gassiev. The only other name that sticks out to me is Bakole, but even then I think Joshua deals with him pretty comfortably.

The problem they have is that the possible opponents aren't too well-known to the casual fan. Since it's not a world title fight they will struggle to sell any of them as PPV.

In an ideal world for Joshua, the IBF order Hrgovic to fight Usyk in a few weeks, Usyk vacates, and Wilder fights Ruiz instead of Hrgovic, leaving Joshua vs Hrgovic for the vacant IBF World Title.

 

I think Bakole deals with this version of AJ fairly comfortably.

 

"BEN SHALOM SHOULD F**KING SEND ME MONEY" Eddie Hearn GOES IN, Mocks Frank Warren & AJ-Wilder Update - YouTube

 

I love these headlines. From watching the video (and skipping the 30-40% on influencer boxing and cringeworthy Parsons nonsense)

• "Shalom should send me money" - a joke that Shalom gets free exposure through these interviews.
• Hearn GOES IN - on what? Nothing I can recall, it was all pretty laid back.
• Mocks Frank Warren - no he didn't, he said he couldn't care less about banter with Warren and it's Frank Smith's job to stir things up now
• AJ-Wilder update - no update at all

I don't know why I get drawn into these, you could cut them down to 2/3 interesting minutes maximum.

 

Its the Essex lifestyle

 

I have heard that Joshua will fight Wilder after his next fight for the 8th year running.

 

Take your rose tinted glasses off mate. Total BS. Hearn, for all his flaws, can get a deal done. I don’t think he should fight Wilder as he gets ironed out in a matter of minutes - but just say he needs another fight in December and isn’t ready for Wilder etc. Dont be blaming Saudi or anyone else. They want this fight and will pay handsomely for it

 

"Handsomely" is the question here. What's the fight actually worth? Saudi won't write a blank cheque for it as despite the lustre with some boxing fans, there's not much prestige in a non-title fight. Wilder isn't exactly a well-known boxer in the mainstream.

 

It’s two of the biggest names in a big HW fight. It is a big fight, anywhere in the world. It also does well on PPV. So they both will get career high paydays - no question