Anthony Fury-Klitschko will avoid the dangerous fighters Fury, Wilder, Usyk, Dubois, Joyce and Bakole now he has learned he cannot take a punch. It will be 2 puddings and Pudding Whyte and Pudding Pulev almost certain - don't rule out Pudding Chisora getting a crack either.
Not totally unfeasible and would represent a great year. All kinds of stars will need to align though. Actually thinking about it they would prob want more than 3 months to promote the super fight if that is the one at the end of the year actually no chance lol. The "undisputed" narrative hasn't gone away so I expect AJ to take care of all his mandatories next year. PR machine will be in overdrive and this will be lapped up and deemed acceptable to the right people. Super fight involving AJ would then be 2021 best case. That poor Ring belt will be a relic by the time it's up for grabs!! Prob 2 fights for AJ next year, then. Pulev and probably Usyk. So no room for Whyte unless they change tact and turn AJ into just a prize fighter.
Pulev fight will happen, because AJ isn't losing that belt for a while, and Pulev has sat out for this for ages. Usyk is in-house and game, so no reason not for it to happen. Wilder/Fury will have no choice or options but to fight AJ.
It was respectable whilst at the same time somewhat annoying. There has been clamour for Wilder to have one rematch. For whatever reason he's not had it, but has recently had two rematches nobody was that bothered about. Also, Ortiz is on that level with Whyte, Parker and Povetkin where ideally you'd want to fight as many of them as you can. Whyte would have been a fight you'd want to see. Wilder would have almost certainly won, but it looks better to say 'I knocked this guy out, and this guy out' rather than 'I beat this old guy twice.'
I'd actually be more intrigued by him fighting Usyk after one or two fights than now. If he fights Usyk straight away and beats him, Usyk was just a hyped cruiserweight. If Usyk fights a bit of a gatekeeper type like Chisora and does a serious number on him, then all of a sudden there's a bit more intrigue. Pulev is a mandatory, has still only ever lost to Klitschko, and with Fury and Wilder apparently tied up fighting each other he represents pretty much the best option who Joshua hasn't already beaten.
Fighting Whyte might mean dropping a belt (WBO is it) ? Don't think they will want to do that unless it's for the chance at the WBC.
Also, a big part of this question may very well be what happens in the Wilder Fury fight. I'll make a prediction now. If Wilder loses, I don't think Joshua Wilder will ever happen.
He might now that he's champ again. He fights twice a year anyway, so now that he'll earn even more money he'll probably go for it.
Looks like Pulev is most likely next and he just about gets a pass as a viable contender, but that says more about the depth at the top of the division more than anything else. I'm not thrilled by the fight but won't grumble too much cos it gets a mandatory out the road, but I'm hoping the one after that is something to get excited about. Which in my own personal preference would be: 1. Winner of Fury vs Wilder. Can't see it happening til 2021 at the earliest unfortunately. 2. Usyk, ideally Usyk coming off a good win in early 2020 against Chisora or whoever to back up his heavyweight credentials which would add to it. It would make up for the underwhelming prospect of Joshua vs Pulev as his first fight next year, but again I think Joshua vs Usyk in 2020 might be wishful thinking. 3. Hunter. Like, Usyk if he can get another good solid win in early 2020 then it'd be hard to say he doesn't deserve a title shot. Plus Hunter is good enough to cause Joshua problems IMO. And he has the blueprint of Joshua-Ruiz I to work with. 4. Nobody other than that would interest me. I'm even being generous putting Hunter on the list. But there really isn't anybody else meaningful for Joshua to fight is there? The closest up and comers who could get into the mix for me would be Hrgovic and Dubois and they're both still a few fights away from that. Probably a few dozen with Dubois. It will probably be Whyte, which to be fair, probably won't be a dull fight but the idea of Joshua vs Whyte II just doesn't get the juices flowing for me, but it will be Whyte I think. Who else is there? I bet Chisora is on the list as a plan D or E.
Who would call Usyk a hyped up cruiser apart from idiots. I'd love that fight to be next. I just have zero interest in the Pulev fight at all. Give me the 'hyped up' undisputed, undefeated cruiser weight champ any day.
