According to the IBF, Joshua will have to fight Bulgarian contender Kubrat Pulev next like expected. Pulev has just handed Johnson his 5th defeat in the last 6 fights in a WBA intercontinental fight, and is the IBF mandatory for some time now. Not the best fight out there, but in my opinion he would be Joshua's second best opponent after Wlad.
If Wlad wants the rematch or just be awkward he can cause the belts to become splintered all over again.....
I can understand why they are ordering it but does Pulev actually want it? I'm sure he was offered the fight a little while ago and he turned it down flat and then Joshua fought Molina instead. Easy nights work for Joshua anyway, I don't think it would go past 3 rounds.
Hey, at least it's not Briggs or Oquendo. Pulev could possibly be interesting for a few rounds, then he gets splattered.
As mandatory he can make it go to pursebids and have a mandatory split. Against Joshi that could mean millions.
Pulev is still a top ten operator so its a decent fight, as mentioned above it would be AJ's second best opponent. Pulev may have learned from the Wlad fight and look to box on the back foot with his jab.
Pulev's toughest opponent since getting destroyed by Klitschko has been Dereck Chisora, and that wasn't an easy fight. I'm not convinced Pulev can handle fighting a puncher like AJ. For Pulev to stand a chance he'd need to assert himself with fearless boxing and jabbing, putting it on AJ aggressive jabbing. But he'll probably just stand there waiting to get destroyed.
Yeah very true, I'm not sure what he was offered before but I believe it was a very decent purse but you're right, AJ is now Box Office so it should be worth a lot more.
There's a Hearn video interview where he said they offered Pulev 3 separate career-high offers, many more times than the 25% he would get as mandatory, to fight Joshua in December and they were all turned down.
Esily AJs second best opponent, but stylistically, not a threat to AJ at all. He's a poor man's Wlad without the power or even chin, for that matter. Easy ko win.
His career high is $1.45M against Wlad. If they offered him say $2 to 2.5M, then a pursebid might probably still be significantly higher
Just another name to build Joshuas resume, obviously much better fights out there but Sky will build it and make it feel like a 50-50 fight. Just like they did with Charles Martin and Eric Molina. But truth is Joshua wipes him out within 6. And makes it look easy, would be more of a fight for Fury to get him into contention again.
There will be one, according to Hearns. I guess since Pulev is a very, very easy opponent for Joshua, they will make this fight anyway before Wlad (if this is allowed). AJ KO's Pulev within 2 rounds.