It's crazy that Povetkin get's treated like a bum and ignored when he's legitimately the best competition that Joshua and Wilder have faced other than Wladimir and MAYBE Ortiz.
Hell, he has a better resume than anyone in boxing besides Joshua and Wilder as it stands, and is younger than Ortiz (assuming his age is false anyways)...
"Nobody" cares. 80,000 tickets sold and millions will watch it worldwide so how can you say "nobody cares"?? Meanwhile Wilder vs Fury still has no date or venue. Its been exactly 1 month since Fury fought Pianeta but we still don't have the most basic information about his fight with Wilder. How can that be?
Well it's evident that AJ doesn't need the US (or losing his belts to Wilder) right now, and I'll even go as far as saying UK fans are the only thing that matters to AJ.
But the rest of that is dead wrong JB, they stream the NFL all over the world (especially in the UK, they even have a commentary panel of Brits that talk about it all Sunday), Pro Soccer in the US is a major victory for futbol, and the Rugby 7s world cup was in my hometown at AT&T Park in San Francisco a couple months ago.
All these other sports know the value of the GLOBAL ECONOMY (and where the big $$ is) yet Hearn & AJ go with the UK & Eastern Europe audience.
AJ needs the US eventually. The UK market is tiny compared to the US market. If he really believes all this billion dollar career stuff he needs the US. Especially since it seems the UK market is starting to get a little bored with his fights. I think Povetkin is a very solid opponent but so supposedly was Parker and that fight was god awful. Hearn has really taken AJ off-track bigtime..
It’s doing well here
80k tickets sold
Will do 500k Ppv buys easily if not more
Joshua is fighting the man wilder ducked and the world is interested in what’s going to happen
It hasn't even sold out in the UK.
I've seen virtually no advertisement for it, very little hype and it has for the most part gone under the radar which is strange.
Still it should be a good fight, Povetkin is a good opponent and a dangerous one.
I would have given a younger roided up povetkin a shot to beat joshua, but he slowed down a lotand lost a lot of quickness and explosiveness recently.
Joshua has been in boring fights lately and looked pretty flawed.
Couldnt get anything going and wasnt able to land clean because of parkers head movement and counterjab.
Gassed against takam. Gassed against klitschko.
He looked like a destroyer when he had martin, breazeale and molina.
Guys who had no defense and couldnt get out of his right straight.
That being said I expect him to knockout povetkin. Povetkin always jumps in range and joshua has a good right uppercut for that situation.
I think the whole Wilder fiasco has thrown water on this fight. Even if on paper it's a fight against a hard-punching heavyweight with a strong record and name recognition, ultimately it's still not the fight people wanted, and I think too many people will have just looked at the bare facts of the matter, namely that Povetkin is old, short and flat-footed and will have concluded that it's not really a contest.
That said, I don't know if "dud" is the right word. Just because Wembley isn't sold out and it's been overshadowed by Canelo-GGG doesn't mean the event won't be profitable. Plus, if Joshua scores a big, exciting knockout, (which is what he built his career on early on but hasn't had in almost a year) he can inject some momentum back into his career. I feel like his career only stalls more though if he doesn't win emphatically.
There's a legitimate fight this weekend between two top ten Heavyweights and nobody cares. That's how retarded Eddie Hearn is.
The consequences for a bait and switch that the public actually saw as a bait and switch.
If he'd been honest about not really wanting to fight Wilder next, he'd have more interest here
Ya but that's all that matters.
This is like saying outside of the usa nobody cares about nfl much. This is true but nfl only need america.
Soccer dont need America
Rugby dont need americs
At this point neither does joshua
But his rival lives there
When AJ displayed that he was a champion wasn't up for *ANY* challenge I think a lot of the boxing world lost interest & respect. Outside of Moscow & the UK, not a lot of people care.
Ya but that's all that matters.
This is like saying outside of the usa nobody cares about nfl much. This is true but nfl only need america.
Soccer dont need America
Rugby dont need americs
At this point neither does joshua
When AJ displayed that he was a champion wasn't up for *ANY* challenge I think a lot of the boxing world lost interest & respect. Outside of Moscow & the UK, not a lot of people care.
He's not up for the real challenge right now but Povetkin shouldn't be an easy win for AJ.
There's a legitimate fight this weekend between two top ten Heavyweights and nobody cares. That's how retarded Eddie Hearn is.
Its on DAZN. 2500 people in the US will even see it