Why is Anthony Joshua facing the worst possible opponent next?

Wallin or Zhang are the two obvious choices (excluding Whyte who should also be a warm up fight however it seems he will be the summer fight)

Wallin is a perfect opponent to KO and build the narrative of it being a better victory than Fury managed.
Zhang is perfect for Joshua - big, quite easy to hit etc.

A lot of backlash over Mckean being mentioned but I havnt seen anyone actually confirm this is the opponent for him.

 

Yep, that's why Warren has overtaken Hearn in the sweepstakes as of late.

 

Let's see Joyce's opponent and if these posters keep the same energy when he takes an easy fight in April rather than fight some of the names they have said Joshua should fight.

 

Excellent post and unsurprising to see @DramaShow side step a response.

@DramaShow also fails to recognise the nuances that are worth pointing out, especially regarding Wallin being avoided and the fact that it would probably do no harm to his career opportunities should he be deemed unimpressive against Sokolowski. I'm not sure what benefit it would have brought him to knock out Sokolowski.

 

Joyce on his way up never fought someone on the level of a 46 year old Matt Skelton in his 7th pro fight.

 

Yes, he faced Joe Hanks who was much better than an old Skelton and who some tipped to beat Joyce. He then faced former WBC belt holder in the next bout. Joyce is yet to face someone as formidable as Gary Cornish.

 

Joyce will take a good fight if the money is right as he is close to a huge payday.

 

Whyte-Wallin was originally scheduled for October 2021. Fury-Whyte didn’t take place until April the next year.

If Whyte wanted to be a man of his word and fight Wallin, he very easily could have rescheduled the Wallin fight and still have fought Fury in spring 2022 after that.

The simple fact is that Whyte skipped the Wallin fight because he didn’t want to risk getting KO’d again and losing his WBC mandatory status again like against Povetkin.

 

Look at Whytes last 2 fights. He made the right call waiting it out as anyone in the top 30 could potentially beat him

 

You’ve accused me of being an alt every week for years. Now you play victim?

There isn’t a laughing emoji strong enough.

 

Don’t see a problem with that, every single other fighter would do the same. In fact you would have to be an idiot to take a fight in October when you had a mandatory shot coming up in April, especially when he felt he was justified that shot for years beforehand.

 

Whyte pulled out of the fight with injury shortly after he was announced WBC mandatory and attempted to fight Fury for the WBC belt. Which is totally understandable. Why would whyte view wallin high tisk? Whyte has already beaten much boxers in Povetkin, Parker, Rivas and Chisora.

Mckean is Wallin standard and both would be poor opponents for AJ. I'm hoping better quality opponent, someone like Hrgovic or Zhang.

 

Now you're pretending that Whyte was "injured" lmao. A mysterious, unexplained, zero evidence "shoulder injury" 10 days out. Ok then, why didn't Whyte fight Wallin instead of Franklin? Wallin's the bigger name, gave Fury a good fight, would have boosted Whyte's credibility, rather than further sinking it with an A-side decision against Franklin. You won't answer this directly because there is no refutation, Whyte blatantly ducked Wallin before and after Fury.

Whyte views Wallin as high risk because Wallin did far better against Fury than he did, and far better against Fury than Chisora did in 2014 or 2022, whereas Chisora went life and death with Whyte twice. He fears Wallin because Wallin is bigger, faster, tougher, hungrier, more skilled and a southpaw, with the potential to end Whyte's career as a pseudo-contender.

The Povetkin that Whyte beat was far worse than Dave Allen. Povetkin didn't land a single significant punch and had no resistance, he was a medically unfit shell.

A few years ago you said that Breazeale was a "solid fringe contender", on the same level as Takam. By that standard, Wallin schooled a "solid fringe contender" away from home (Joshua's 8th best opponent beaten) who had previously gone 7 rounds with Joshua in Britain.

 

Quite happy it's not Wallin to be honest.....he boxed **** against Sokolowski when I seen him last year, literally put people to sleep. Didn't move up the gears whatsoever.

 

It was a bad performance