By Cliff Rold
This week, what looked likely became nearly concrete.
WBC heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KO) won’t be across the ring from Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury in his next outing and that may take him through the rest of the year. Speculation has been that Wilder is following a course of fights from the quickly concluded Dominic Breazeale grudge match to a rematch with Luis Ortiz (31-1, 26 KO) and then a clash with rising contender Adam Kownacki (19-0, 15 KO).
Whether that turns out to be fully the case remains to be seen. By all accounts, Breazeale happening in lieu of a Fury rematch wasn’t Wilder’s doing. For now, we know the Ortiz rematch is coming this fall. The first was a hell of a fight, Ortiz is still a consensus top ten heavyweight, and there are reasons to think a rematch will be compelling. If it’s not the fight the most people want to see, disappointment is reasonable.
It’s still happening.
That’s all we know for sure about the top of the division for now.
What boxing fans and followers don’t know yet is what will happen for the rest of 2019 with the other two heads of what is a three-headed top of the class. Before there can be any real speculation, we need to see pending matches play out. That starts Saturday when WBA/IBF/WBO titlist Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KO) makes his US debut at Madison Square Garden (DAZN, 8:30 PM EST).
Joshua will face late replacement Andy Ruiz (32-1, 21 KO). It is Ruiz’s second crack at a title after falling short for the vacant WBO belt against Joseph Parker in 2016. Opinions vary on how big a chance Ruiz has at the upset.
Joshua is strongly favored.
The man who beat the man doesn’t have a belt though many feel he should have earned one in the decision against Wilder last year. Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KO) returns to the ring on June 15th against the unheralded Tom Schwarz (24-0, 16 KO). Schwarz isn’t a name on many radars; soon enough we will know if it should be.
Fury is strongly favored.
Assuming the chalk holds, the year will be roughly half over and two of the three heavyweight heads will have open dance cards.
So, assuming they both win their next fights, it just makes sense that Joshua and Fury would turn to each other, right? There won’t be anything close to a bigger fight immediately available for either man the rest of the year, so full steam ahead?
Not so fast.
It says from here we probably aren’t going to see any combination of Joshua/Wilder/Fury in 2019. Network alliances, promotional divides, etc. Pick your poison pill.
There seems to be a feeling the resumption of the big fights is at least 2020 away.
At least.
It’s okay for fans not to be okay with that.
It’s probably not entirely reasonable to expect to see Joshua, Wilder, and Fury to only fight each other. It is reasonable, for so long as they represent the cream of the crop, to give fans at least one real event a year.
Part of that is the raising of the bar that has taken place in the last couple years. Joshua’s Fight of the Year victory over Wladimir Klitschko, Wilder’s career proving win over Ortiz the first time, and the drama of Fury-Wilder that showed some of the best of both men has served as a reminder of just how awesome a spectacle competitive heavyweight championship boxing can be. As dominant as they were at their peak, the Klitschko’s rarely had the rivals in the decade before Fury’s upset of Wladimir that could make the division as entertaining as it has been in the last few years.
If Joshua-Wilder still feels like the most interesting clash out there for many, it’s quite reasonable to understand why. Knockout numbers like they have carry a promise of violence and the rhetorical battle between the men, their camps, and their fans has helped build hope and anticipation.
Joshua-Fury wouldn’t need much work to build all sorts of its own anticipation. It’s a monster stadium fight in the UK if it happened there; it would travel thousands to the US if it had to happen here. The obstacles to making it are surmountable if the desire is there. ESPN and Top Rank being in the Fury business would only make it bigger given their microphone to the sports world.
It is absolutely reasonable, going forward, for fans to want to see that fight before this year is out. Fury-Wilder was a pleasant surprise last year. Maybe there is another pleasant surprise waiting for us around the corner.
It doesn’t mean Fury or Joshua couldn’t make other good fights. Fury and Dillian Whyte are the top two contenders to the WBC belt and could compete to be Wilder’s mandatory. Joshua could fight cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk, IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev, or rematch Whyte as the leading WBO contender.
Those, like Wilder-Ortiz II, would all be good fights.
They just wouldn’t feel good enough if it means letting a whole year slip by without seeing something more. Joshua-Fury would be more than a good fight.
It’s a super fight.
Ruiz or Schwarz could render that moot in the next few weeks. If they don’t, the biggest fight that can be made at heavyweight is obvious.
Obvious won’t mean imminent and that’s a damn shame.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
