Comments Thread For: Hearn: Joshua-Usyk Will Be A Massive Fight One Day, Not Now

[MDPopescu]

Othe websites are citing Usyk as saying he intends to make a careful transition up to HW...

[kafkod]

Othe websites are citing Usyk as saying he intends to make a careful transition up to HW...

Eddie Hearn told them to write that.

[MDPopescu]

Eddie Hearn told them to write that.

... As we know: Usyk is signed with Matchroom...

[Bronx2245]

November 11, 2018:

The boxing industry awaits the next move of former unified middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) who is now a television free agent. There have been some rumbling of him facing newly minted WBA super middleweight champion, Callum Smith (25-0, 18 KOs). Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, told ESPN.com that he has spoken to Smith's promoter, Eddie Hearn, for a possible fight, but he also said that there really hasn't been any serious discussions. “First, we're going to focus on getting a television deal done him,” Loeffler said. “After that, we'll figure out who makes the most sense for him to fight." The 36 year old Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) suffered his first professional defeat in September to Canelo Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) in what was a close 12-round split decision in Las Vegas.

http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=1-25244691

[uppercut510]

Joshua willing to fight Big Baby, Dillian Whyte, Derrick Chisora, Joseph Parker, some other random heavyweights. He's too scared to face real competition like Wilder, Fury and Ortiz.

I think its more of Hearn but I think all of hearns antics have messed with AJs confidence a bit and he kinda doubts himself. Look at his interviews when hes questioned about wilder... u can see that it bothers him mentally.

[Straightener]

and so it begins

joshua's career is goign to turn into a sideshow, he'll get complacent, and in 2-3 years he will lose. just looking at the totalityof hearn's rhetoric it's easy to see now that he's determined that he can keep joshua as basically a football star, who UK casuals will watch no matter who he fights, becuase htye don't know enough abotu the division or what constitutes a mismatch or a duck.

quack f3cking quack . ducking a cruiserweight now? a fight with a dude at his peak, just knocked out the biggest name to add to his stature in the UK other than fury or joshua, and on the pound for pound list needs to build? capitalize on teh f#cking momentum, don't wait for it to die off eddie!

yeah f#cking right

eddie eddie eddie eddie

The hate is real !

[Eff Pandas]

LOL Eddie trying to marinate all the challenging fights. He's supposed to do that I guess, but I hate that I gotta age 2 years before I see the compelling fights all the time.

Sh^ts so ****** for fans. When I'm like 70 I'm thinking I might just quit watching boxing cuz they might be marinating sh^t past my death so wtf am I wasting my time being a fan of boxing for at that point if they aren't giving me the fights I want.

That said its not Usyk's time yet, but him saying he wants to make this a huge fight just seems unrealistic to me. Uysk might never became a huge fight for Joshua, but he's a talented guy that could very well earn a shot at Joshua within a fight or two & I don't even think its crazy for Usyk to be next if the Wilder or Fury fight can't be made & Whyte loses.

It'll be interesting to watch Hearn's moves with this Joshua project doe. I think there are a few mfers surrounding Joshua as we speak who can beat him & if they can't I think the fact they could end up being back to back opponents with all this avoiding of serious contenders sh^t going on & that might be what leads to that first Joshua L to. Hearn is being smart with the money & risk, but he's not being smart with the world boxing fans doe which is a unusual thing for him that is a huge tell to me he's scared of Joshua losing & Joshua's lost potential legacy-wise will be blamed on him.

That said I think Joshua will fight whoever so I'm not putting this on him which is what I think a lot of UK fans & fanboys keep trying to put those types of words in my & other people with similar opinions mouth.

[Laligalaliga]

FOH! Aj ask for & then ran from 50million no matter how much you lie.

Stop ranting like a baby. You want to fight the champ, you come to the champs back yard you chicken.

The unified champ is ready for any body that is willing and available to sign the contract not some bird legs doing promo on social media like an up coming artiste.

[Boxing Logic]

The Ring Magazine
Mike Coppinger
November 9, 2018:

Aleksandr Usyk defends his Ring cruiserweight championship against Tony Bellew on Saturday, but Ward doesn’t seem too interested in fighting the winner. For one, Ward pointed out that Bellew has maintained he’s retiring afterward no matter the outcome. As for the current champ, Ward said “Usyk seems to be a good fighter, I haven’t seen a lot of him, but I’m not really tripping on a guy like that. I wish him nothing but the best.”

In other words: Usyk doesn’t possess the kind of name recognition that would entice Ward out of retirement. The man who does is heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.Ward has long dreamed of one day fighting for a heavyweight title, just like his idol Roy Jones Jr. During the news conference following his win over Kovalev, Ward’s trainer, Virgil Hunter, broached the idea of a fight between his charge and Joshua...

If he’s going to end his retirement, Ward made it clear it must be a legacy-defining fight, and what better way to go out then with a challenge of Joshua, a man who stands 6-foot-6 and 240-plus pounds?

“When Virg brought that up post-Kovalev, that was serious,” Ward noted. “I know it seems crazy, it is a major risk but that’s what this thing is all about. Magnitude of the fight? That would be crazy because no one would think I would win, and all the critics and everybody who’s been waiting on me to lose, they for sure would have a front-row seat, they’re going to promote the fight.

“They’re going to write about it, they’re not going to stop writing about it because they want people to see that fight, because they’ll be like ‘that’s going to be the one where I’m going to get got.’ It would be huge. It would be huge.

“But again, man, I wish (Joshua) nothing but the best. He’s doing great things. It was possible, but I’m not active, I’m retired, so it’s not something I really think about.”

For someone not thinking at all about fighting, Ward seemed pretty excited at the mere thought of a mega fight with Joshua. For now, it’s purely fantasy, but it takes just one call from Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn to put the wheels in motion with an offer Ward can’t refuse.

https://www.******.com/547437-andre-...ques-interest/

Ward is full of it. Undisputed cruisereweight championship is something Ward's "not really tripping" over even though Usyk is a "good" fighter? And Usyk is not a legacy fight at cruiserweight? A light heavyweight moving up to face the undisputed cruiserweight champ is not a legacy fight?

Get real. Ward is just making excuses to duck an athletic southpaw boxer puncher, just like he found excuses to duck every other single one even half as good as Usyk his entire career, from Degale to Bute to Stevenson. Joshua's gas tank is not half as good as Usyk's, and he's more of an orthodox bread and butter fighter. That is the style Ward is used to beating, so that's all this is. Cherry picking is not always about choosing overall poor opponents, although that is USUALLY how it's done, but it's also about styles. Ward ducked those guys just like Floyd ducked Spadafora because styles make fights, and Ward knows Usyk would school him.

Anyway, I want to see Ward take his third loss, sure, but I have no interest in Joshua-Ward. You know why? Because Joshua is too big. If he won, it would feel cheap, I wouldnt care. I would only care if Ward lost to someone his size. Ward tweeted he is 200 pounds of pure muscle now, so that's cruiserweight. Even when he fought at super middleweight, Virgil Hunter said Ward's normal weight was high 190s and sometimes over 200 lbs. So a fight vs Usyk, THAT is the fight where Ward's haters will buy front row seats to see if he loses, because that fight would actually be somewhat fair and therefore meaningful. Ward vs Joshua is just dumb.

And let me put it this way. Could Ward beat Joshua? Yes, but if he has a 25% chance to beat Joshua, then Usyk has a 50% chance to beat Joshua. What that means is, there's a scenario where both Usyk and Ward are better heavyweights, head to head, than Joshua. And if so, then so what if Ward beats Joshua? That's still not the best heavyweight. And so what if Usyk beats Joshua? That's still not the best if Ward would beat him. So either way, we come back to a scenario where the real fight to make is Usyk vs Ward, or at least, that's a fight that needs to be made in addition to the Joshua fights.

Usyk-Joshua, that needs to happen eventually. Usyk-Ward, that should happen. So long as the first two happen, then Joshua-Ward could also become a very meaningful big fight. But without the first two, it's just a random meaningless money grab.

[Boxing Logic]

By the way, I agree that Usyk should take probably 3 fights at heavyweight before Joshua. Joshua-Usyk should happen April 2020. But waiting any longer than that, Usyk is already 31 years old, so you're just going to ruin his legs which his style depends on and ruin the intrigue of the fight. But maybe that's what Hearn wants, to wait until Usyk declines before making the fight. If I was Usyk's team, I would watch out for that. Take all the time you need to grow into a rounded heavyweight, but make sure Joshua or Hearn don't drag it out any more after that.