Wallin has one good win against Gassiev and a solid showing against Fury. He would not be in Joshua's top 3 wins for me. Klitschko, Povetkin, and Parker are better. Ruiz came in in terrible shape, Pulev was never that good, and Takam isn't an elite heavyweight. I would rank a win over Wallin similar to Joshua's win against Whyte, a solid showing.
I like to give Joshua credit for taking his mandatories and unifying, even if it was largely a weak era. But can't give him credit for beating a green, unconditioned Whyte. Even the roided to the gills Whyte was being given every advantage as a 'PPV star'.. still not sure how he got away with that headbutt to knock down Parker. It's doing a disservice to solid contenders like Wallin to put him behind Whyte.. especially when you compare their performances against Fury.
and yet Wallin doesn't even have that level of competition on his record. Wallin has done very little at the top level and beating him wouldn't do AJ's record a lot of good. He's certainly done less than the likes of Wlad, Ruiz, and Parker, who have all held belts and Whyte was left hanging around for ages despite putting in decent shows against everyone else bar the belt holders in the division. Pulev isn't great but after the loss to Wlad he was unbeaten for a good few years. Not stella competition but that's the point. Wallin hasn't beaten any former champs or real threats to the big boys. He's a solid, unspectacular fighter.
well it woudl help if folk would fight him wouldnt it mate you seem to be missing that out how many folk has he called out hes never done doing it whyte ducked him in clearest duck in years
If Joshua doesn't fight Wilder in December which seems extremely likely then Wallin is a great opponent. Easy win for him right? Can then do the he gave Fury hell narrative etc. It's a bit of a no brainer really.
Joshua has a bunch of bums and a bunch of shot old men on his resume. Joey twelve paper champ Parker is probably the only prime young lion AJ has and he turned out to be a feather fisted BUM who lost to Andy Ruiz and should have losses to chisora and whyteleafe level guys. The Wallin who faced fury would be arguably Joshua’s toughest test. No surprises they swerved him like they swerved all the other top guys.
Spot on Jim. Let’s examine the three best Joshua victims in depth in relation to Wallin: W. Klitschko, 41, B-side, in London Arguably the toughest fight Wlad had in between Peter 1 and Fury was his first against Tony Thompson: a 6’5, 247 lbs southpaw with heart, chin and engine who could box and fight. Wallin shares these attributes and would be the most similar fighter to Thompson on Wlad’s record; he’s not a blown up cruiserweight primarily coming for a payday like most of Wlad’s best wins. I could easily envisage a 41 year old Wlad having more problems with Wallin than he did at 32 vs Thompson. And if Wallin had the advantage with the judges that Joshua did, he could rack up a lot of rounds. Wallin’s best win is also better than Thompson’s best win, for what that’s worth. Povetkin, 39, B-side, in London Povetkin had three fights of note against southpaws: Byrd, Chagaev and Perez. They were short, either 6’ or below, blown up sub-heavies (like Povetkin himself). Povetkin uncharacteristically KO’d Perez in 1, beat Byrd in reasonably dominant fashion over 11 and Chagaev went the 12 round distance in an 8-4 type fight. Povetkin was proficient at chasing down movers but his best wins were probably Whyte and Takam in wars. Povetkin’s team avoided dangerous southpaw Ortiz, who was far bigger than the other southpaws Povetkin fought but about two inches shorter than Wallin. With Joshua’s level of A-side advantage I think Wallin beats Povetkin, who in his next fight had a competitive 12 rounder with fringe contender Hughie. Whyte, 27, B-side, in London This is where it gets easy. Whyte (who had dishonestly stated a willingness to fight Wallin since 2019) blatantly ducked Wallin 10 days out from their agreed 2021 fight in London where Whyte was a big A-side and then ducked Wallin again after the Fury schooling to take on an unknown part time factory worker. Whyte couldn’t lay a glove on mutual opponent Fury before getting one-punch KO’d in 6. Yet Whyte beat Parker, who beat Ruiz (a much better version of Ruiz than the untrained 284 lbs mess that Joshua outpointed in a big Saudi ring). Unlike Parker, Whyte came to win against Joshua and unlike Ruiz in the rematch, he trained for the fight. Whyte has virtually zero southpaw experience, inferior boxing skills, less athleticism, an average engine at best, a below average chin and is 2.5 inches shorter than Wallin. Wallin beats Whyte with relative ease, even without A-side advantage. Everyone below Whyte on Joshua’s ledger gets beaten as well and with ease if Wallin were the A-side that Joshua was. Parker has more problems with movers than pressure fighters according to his longtime ex-trainer (2012-2021) Kevin Barry, little fire, minimal southpaw experience, an average engine, his power diminishes significantly after 3 rounds and he’s 2 inches shorter than Wallin. Even an “in-shape” 268 lbs Ruiz would get his head boxed off by Wallin, let alone the 284 lbs Joshua 2 version; 43 year old, 400 career fights Ortiz would have got the decision after 12 rounds with Ruiz if he had any punch resistance left. The other Joshua victims don’t even bear mentioning. If Hearn truly believed that Wallin were easy work for A-side Joshua coming off the Usyk losses then Hearn would have made the fight rather than selecting an unknown part time factory worker who was himself coming off a loss and who exhibited a lack of heart in that loss. Mitch may not like it but Joshua ducked Wallin. Wallin would be the 2nd best win on Joshua’s record or at worst 3rd. He’d certainly be the highest level Joshua opponent under 39 years old who wasn’t named Usyk. One could have made these claims with some confidence immediately after he gave 2019 Fury a good fight over 12 rounds and it was abundantly clear that it wasn't just a Fury off night after he schooled the limited but big, durable, determined and heavy handed Breazeale, who is one of Joshua and Wilder’s top 10 wins. Now that Wallin has beaten and indeed soundly outboxed the 4th best cruiserweight of Usyk’s cruiser era as the B-side in Turkey, who many on this forum for years said was a heavyweight nightmare and a killer who would KO Wilder and Joshua, these anti-Fury, anti-Wallin muppets have been left with egg on their faces. But most of them, being dishonest and petty individuals, are still making pathetic excuses, unwilling to admit that they were wrong as usual.
Based on this thread there should be no excuses when AJ beats him well, he should be lauded for a good win. Wont be the case though
I'm not going to change from my viewpoint that Wallin won't rank highly in Joshua's resume, although it will be a good boost and a better opponent than Helenius and slightly better than Franklin. The reason why I bumped this thread is because it's clear that a lot of people thought Joshua would avoid Wallin as he was too risky. If and when Joshua wins, these people should give him the credit for getting the win. I think Joshua will win by stoppage in the final 4 rounds. It could be a comfortable points decision though if Wallin fights negatively once he feels Joshua's power. An intriguing matchup to end the year. Fairplay to Joshua for fighting 3 times this year. I guess his first fight of 2024 will be against Wilder or a vacant IBF World Title clash against Hrgovic. No problem with either fight.
If Joshua had gone away after Usyk 2 and said "I'm down and rebuilding" and said he'd take 3 step-up fights to get his style back, nobody should have complained. If we'd been told they were Franklin, Hellenius and Wallin we'd have probably taken that. Shut out all the noise from the likes of Fury and Wilder and be professional - no problem. I'd even have taken Joshua on tour to get away from the UK casuals and just allow himself to box. By now, we might have had Joshua with confidence back, at least one Fury-Usyk fight with an undisputed champion and fragmented belts to chase, and none of the Ngannou circus. Funny how things turn out though.
AJ has nothing to be proud about beating that version of parker it was embarrassing worst ref I’ve ever seen up there with Cortez in Hatton mayweather. Whenever parker got close they would get broken up then basically forced the smaller man to try fight the bigger man on the outside not to mention aj calling his own time outs.. it was pathetic and no use for a measuring stick. If parker was able to fight on the inside aj would have probably quit when he weathered a storm.
