Heavyweight contender Otto Wallin admits that he now has a different viewpoint when it comes to a potential fight between British rivals Anthony Joshua and WBC world champion Tyson Fury.
Back in 2019, Wallin lost a spirited twelve round unanimous decision to Fury. During that fight, Fury sustained two severe cuts from legal punches. There was realistic concern that a ringside physician would stop the fight, and in turn would have Wallin named as a TKO winner - but the contest was allowed the play out.
Last month in Saudi Arabia, Joshua battered and stopped Wallin in five rounds of action.
Before last month's defeat, Wallin was pretty confident that Fury would defeat Joshua. That opinion has changed a bit, and the Swedish fighter is not as confident in Fury's ability to come out on top.
"Well, I would say that this fight with Joshua was a lot tougher than the fight I had with Fury," Wallin said to Boxing News.
"It’s hard to say [what would happen in a fight between Fury and Joshua]. I think that Fury’s a very good fighter. Can probably pick it up from what he was doing in his last fight. It’s a decent fight. We’ll see what happens with Joshua now.
"He might be on to something really good with Ben Davison, and Ben obviously knows Tyson. I don’t know. There’s a lot of variables. I always said that Fury would win that fight, but now just being in with Joshua, I feel a little bit different. It’s hard to go against Tyson I think. But, I don’t know, it’s changed my mind a bit after this fight.”
Fury returns to the ring on February 17, when he faces IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk in a high-stakes undisputed fight in Saudi Arabia.