Anthony joshua is one of the biggest frauds in boxing

With less than a week's notice?
Remember Helenius was a late replacement
I'm not sure if any of the above were available in under a week or would want to at such short notice

 

I couldn't say either way there but from what I have noticed in the past is that late replacements against bigger name opposition tend to have a fight coming up so are nearer fighting fit or recently fought.
That's what I have noticed but may be incorrect
Were any of the above due to have a fight in and around the 2 weeks of the Joshua fight?

 

How do you know?

 

"I'm not a 12 round fighter" - Anthony Joshua

 

“Usyk got the decision because his country is at war” - Tyson Fury

 

Yeah theres no way any of the top notable contenders would fight Joshua on a weeks notice that would be stupid.

Helenius was at the tail end of his career so he jumped at the chance of a big day as he knew he wouldn't get another big fight so it made sense for him to cash out.

 

Fury will take back these words. If he doesn't he will lose the rematch.

 

Because the promoters would have shouted it from the rooftops.

 

Depends on the fighter tbh. Short notice would have affected both fighters i.e. Ruiz v AJ 1.

 

I think they probably learnt their lesson on that one. Ruiz Jr. was a tougher opponent than Miller who was originally scheduled. Besides, Joshua at the time was champion and needed a viable opponent for MSG, no one does that during a rebuild.

Let's look at some of the suggestions (The fight was 08/2023):

Wilder - There is no way either side would want to make that fight at a week or two's notice.

Ruiz Jr - they learnt their lesson on that one. And the trilogy fight would need a bigger build up.

Zhang had a scheduled rematch against Joyce.

Hrgovic was the IBF iterim (mandatory challenger), they had been in negotiations to fight, so he would no doubt have expected more notice.

Ortiz - I'm throwing his name out there as he would have been a realistic opponent and more exciting than Helenius, however, I think team Joshua wouldn't want to give him the fight because of the carry on they had with him as a replacement for Miller at the MSG.

Wallin - not sure he had the profile as he had yet to get the hype from beating Gassiev, though he still had the shine from Fury. I think he would have been the most realistic alternative to Helenius.

Parker - possible, but he was still early in his own rebuild. Personally, I would have seen it as Joshua trying to take advantage of Parker and using his name to sell the fight.

Bakole - like Helenius his last win being against an overmatched opponent, but he had a way smaller profile than Helenius. At that point Bakole's biggest win was Yoka.

Kabayel - a dark horse yes, but his career had been stagnating under TopRank at the time. He had next to no profile at the time.​

Helenius made the most sense, and it was taken off PPV once Whyte popped. I wasn't excited by the match-up at all to be honest, but it held a little interest as a recent opponent of Wilder's. It is what it is. To expect them to line up someone bigger doesn't make sense based on the landscape at the time.

 

& let’s not forget how he got knocked out by an absolute pudgy Pug fat pudding sack o meatballs in Ruiz!

 

That's a very good post, and you make some solid points. I still have to disagree that Helenius coming off a KO1 loss to Wilder was the best they could do. It would have been better to just postpone the event entirely.

 

Yes, maybe me saying "Helenius made the most sense" is a little too strong, more I should say I could understand why they made that fight. I agree that I wouldn't have been bothered if they postponed the event either. Though it probably wasn't a consideration at such short notice, as DAZN had a schedule, the whole undercard would be expecting to fight and get paid, fans with tickets, etc., etc.

 

Are we speaking about Wallin here?
Wallin was and is a decent boxer. He gave Fury a thought fight and then beat low level guys like: Kauffman, Breazeale, Sokolowski and Booker. He did it with ease and showed that he had some class. He then went on to beat Gassiev.
I don´t see how Wallin could have been a bad fight for any heavyweight.

 

He's referring to Ngannou.